For One Couple, a Double Burden

They could have gone back to work.

They were prepared. They desperately needed the sense of a normal life again, not to mention the money.

Still, on Tuesday, Fernando and Cynthia Sauceda woke up in the cramped three-bedroom South El Monte apartment they share with their two daughters and decided not to budge, even if it means denying the girls new clothes and postponing the family’s dream of home ownership.

“We’re not crossing the picket lines,” said Fernando, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority mechanic whose union suddenly asked him to go back to work, even though MTA drivers remained on strike. Cynthia’s union for dispatchers also announced that it was all right to cross the picket lines.

“There’s just no way we’re not going to back those drivers. Not a chance. No matter how bad it gets for us,” Fernando said.

The Saucedas are now caught in the twisting, turning negotiations to end the Los Angeles transit strike.

The unity of the work stoppage had held up for about two weeks, as most of the workers who provide daily support for the striking drivers have also stayed off the job.

But on Monday afternoon, leaders of the Saucedas’ respective unions--the mechanics’ Amalgamated Transit Union and the dispatchers’ American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees--decided to break ranks.

The Saucedas, like most of their colleagues, decided it would be foolish to cross picket lines right now, even though, Fernando said, he and his wife were getting sick with sore throats and aches from the stress.

Going back would open the two to alienation from their fellow workers when the strike ends, although they would not face penalties from their unions. There might not be fisticuffs, but possibly lost friendships.

It’s really the principle, he said.

In 1994, the mechanics struck for better pay. The drivers supported them and, even though Fernando wasn’t working for the MTA at the time, now is a chance to return the favor.

“I think most of the workers think that way,” he said. “Where I work, I don’t think anyone is going in. I think it’s the same where Cynthia works. People don’t want to cause a split.”

‘All Our Income Is Tied Up in This’

You could hardly blame them for being tempted.

On the picket lines, there are few who stand to be affected by a prolonged work stoppage as much Fernando, 30, and Cynthia, 32.

“Not too many married couples, both of them working for the MTA,” are out on strike, said Fernando, who normally works at an MTA plant in East Los Angeles. “It’s really tense. All our income is tied up in this.”

In normal times the couple take home about $850 a week combined.

This allows them to scratch out a no-frills happiness.

Rent and food get paid for. The 6-year-old gets her dance classes, and the 3-year-old gets her Barbie dolls. Every few years the couple can afford an out-of-town vacation.

But since the strike began, they have spent the better part of their days walking picket lines, with toddler Jacquelyn in tow, or attending rallies.

They have been weathering a psychological storm, as they did last weekend when they watched every TV update from their living room, buoyed by reports that the strike could end at any moment.

It never did.

Two Fridays ago, the last checks came in.

The couple used the money to pay $750 for October’s rent. They went to Costco and loaded up on frozen burritos, milk, canned beans and peppers.

They receive no strike benefits from their unions, so if the strike lasts much longer, real belt-tightening is ahead.

There’s no room for the weekend matinee movies that they like to take their daughters to. For entertainment, the couple plan to start walking around a mall near their home, careful not to buy anything.

There will be “no Pokemon dolls, no new clothes for the girls,” even with school starting, said Fernando. “My mom is going to get some materials to make them some pants. My daughter wanted one of those Razor push scooters. She’s going to have to wait.”

The family has about $1,700 in savings, though if the strike lasts much longer it could be gone.

The savings account was supposed to go for a down payment for a little three-bedroom house, perhaps in Covina, one with a dog and a cat and a yard.

“Each day the strike goes on, the house we want, it’s like farther and farther away. . . . That dream is deteriorating,” said Cynthia, weary even during the strike, when she hasn’t had to get up at 3 a.m., as she does when she is working.

The Saucedas say that they will go on welfare if they have to. They will get food stamps. They will work temporary jobs for a bit over minimum wage.

For now though, the two say they will hold on.

“She’s not budging,” said Fernando. “Neither am I.”