Davis Vetoes Bill Designed to Protect MTA Bus Workers

In a defeat for organized labor, Gov. Gray Davis has vetoed a bill sponsored by the unions representing Metropolitan Transportation Authority drivers and mechanics that would have made it extremely difficult for other transit operators to take over MTA bus routes in the San Fernando and western San Gabriel valleys.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City), would have required any new operator of the bus service to pay wages and benefits similar to those now received by MTA workers.

Despite strong backing from labor, Democrat Davis vetoed the bill on Sunday. In a terse veto message released Monday, Davis said: “I do not think it is appropriate for the state to mandate how local public agencies conduct collective bargaining with their employees.”

The governor also said he would prefer that MTA recognize “existing collective bargaining agreements and not use the establishment of transportation zones as subterfuge for denying worker rights for which they have already bargained.”

Davis’ action surprised and outraged labor leaders, who said the bill’s protections were important for MTA drivers and mechanics currently serving the Valley.

“I’m shocked the governor would do this,” said Neil Silver, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents MTA mechanics.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” Silver added during a break from the AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles. “I can’t believe the governor doesn’t care about the working men and women.”

A spokeswoman for Murray also said she was “extremely disappointed” with the veto.

The unions pushed for passage of the bill as a way to stop creation of a new San Fernando Valley transit zone and expansion of Foothill Transit into the western San Gabriel Valley.

Foothill already runs low-cost and high quality bus service in the east San Gabriel Valley using only private contractors to operate and maintain the buses. They earn substantially less than most MTA drivers and mechanics. The MTA’s unions fear that creation of a transit zone in the San Fernando Valley and any expansion by Foothill into more of MTA’s territory in the San Gabriel Valley will threaten their jobs.

If all the bus lines in question were spun off to different operators, the shift could affect the jobs of more than 1,000 MTA bus drivers and hundreds of mechanics.

Supporters of spinning off MTA bus lines to other operators hailed the veto, saying it gives new life to the idea of creating a Valley system that provides better service for the transit-dependent at less cost.

“The legislation would have been a real poison pill in terms of creating a Valley Transit Authority,” said David Fleming, chairman of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and a former member of the California Transportation Commission.

“We would have been saddled with all of the expenses downtown had, particularly with the union contracts. It would not have penciled out,” Fleming said.

A group of up to nine Valley area cities is hoping to break away from the MTA and form a Valley transit zone that would operate 27 bus lines that currently are run by MTA serving the Valley and surrounding communities.

A zone cannot be established unless it costs less and provides an improved level of service over what the MTA now provides.

Labor leaders are concerned that to meet that standard, the Valley authority would enter into private contracts that would pay greatly reduced wages and benefits to drivers and mechanics.

“The people would end up working for next to nothing,” Silver warned.

Fleming, whose alliance includes the United Chambers of Commerce and the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said business and political leaders from the Valley had lobbied Davis hard for a veto.

The County Board of Supervisors and the Glendale, Burbank and Calabasas city councils had all voted to oppose the bill.

The veto is likely to result in a quick application for creation of the Valley Transit Zone and will probably force labor and transit authority proponents to sit down to hash out differences, said zone supporter Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. and chairman of the secession group Valley VOTE.

“The veto will allow the process to move forward quickly,” Close said. “The bill was viewed by many as making creation of the transit authority very difficult, if not impossible. That has been eliminated now.”

“Most people thought he would sign the bill,” Close said, adding he believed the governor saw that the zone proposal had widespread support in the Valley.

Former Assemblyman Richard Katz, who has been active in support of the transit zone for VICA, said the veto demonstrates Davis’ independent thinking.

“I think he looked at what is in the best interest of the people who ride buses, how it will improve that service,” Katz said. “He’s made it clear he is going to govern from the middle and he’s going to chose good ideas and veto bad ideas, irrespective of where they come from.”

Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) voted for the bill, believing it struck a balance between seemingly competing interests, said Paul Hefner, a spokesman for the legislator.

“We thought it was a reasonable step to provide some protections for some of the folks who are doing the job right now in the Valley, while at the same time providing the Valley with the opportunity to create a transit zone,” Hefner said.

Glendale Mayor Ginger Bremberg said the governor has saved them a chance of having a better transportation system for the Valley. “We are going to provide a good, sound, reliable, low-cost transit system,” she said. “If we had had to pick up the MTA’s sins and shortcomings, it wouldn’t have worked.”

Julie Austin, executive director of Foothill Transit, said the agency’s board of directors will have to decide the next step in seeking to take over MTA’s bus lines. Nine cities--Pasadena, South Pasadena, Alhambra, Rosemead, Monterey Park, San Marino, San Gabriel, Sierra Madre and Montebello--have endorsed expansion of Foothill’s service area.

Austin said Foothill can provide “more bang for the buck” than MTA.

Although the MTA opposed Murray’s bill, the agency’s chief operating officer Allan Lipsky had no immediate comment on the veto.

MTA project manager Jon Hillmer said the transit agency operates 27 bus lines in the San Fernando Valley that carry about 120,000 boardings on an average weekday. MTA runs 350 buses in the Valley.

Richard Brumbaugh, MTA’s chief financial officer, said there are 636 union drivers and 263 mechanics assigned to the Valley bus operations.

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BLOW FOR COLLEGES

A bill that would have meant more money for local community colleges was vetoed. A3