MTA Makes ‘Final Offer’ to Striking Union

In a dramatic bid to end the 26-day bus strike Tuesday night, the chief of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority gave the bus and rail operators union what he called his “last, best and final offer.”

“This is really an effort on our part to try to bring these lengthy negotiations to a head,” said the MTA chief executive officer, Julian Burke. “We believe we’ve made an offer that is very attractive, that represents the best wage and benefit package offered to this union in over six years.”

Burke would not disclose specifics of the plan. The 4,400 striking bus and rail operators have been most concerned about efforts by the MTA to replace full-time jobs with part-time jobs and to drastically reduce overtime payments, which the drivers have been receiving for years.

Burke gave the union until 9 a.m. Thursday to respond. He also said that if the proposal is rejected, he would take it directly to the union members.

Burke’s offer also could serve as a precondition for a “declaration of impasse,” which could trigger changes favorable to management.

James Williams, the president of the United Transportation Union, responded: “The MTA has given us a proposal--a proposal that is somewhat like a threat.”

“It’s time to end this strike,” he told reporters during an impromptu news conference in the parking garage of the Pasadena Hilton. “It’s time for bus operators to go to work. It’s time for people who depend on the buses to have their buses back on the road.

“But you don’t end a strike by threatening the labor unions,” Williams said. “I am not frightened by their threats. I’m not bothered by what they say they are going to do.”

Williams said he would review the proposal and give Burke a response by the Thursday deadline.

The clash followed an hour-long meeting at the hotel of a team of MTA executives and drivers union representatives.

Throughout the day Tuesday, officials continued trying to cobble together a makeshift bus system to lessen the impact of the strike that has disrupted bus and rail service for 450,000 weekday riders.

The MTA reported two incidents involving picketers chasing independent bus operators or trying to stop them by throwing nails under their tires. There were no injuries. No arrests were made.

The MTA reported that 25 to 30 people chased a bus that the transit agency is trying to get going as part of a “lifeline” service for transit-dependent residents of the city’s low-income neighborhoods.

The incident occurred at the transit center at Pico Boulevard and Rimpau Street, a busy crossroads for MTA and Santa Monica buses.

On Monday, demonstrators threw nails under the tires of a bus, MTA officials said. No injuries were reported, but MTA spokesmen said two non-union contract bus drivers resigned.

Despite the incidents, the MTA said it contracted with Transit Systems, a private company, to operate six buses with non-union drivers on Line 30, which runs from San Vicente and Pico boulevards to 7th and Alvarado streets. By Thursday, the MTA hopes to have eight buses on the line, running every 8 minutes all the way to Broadway and 1st Street downtown.

The MTA also said it was going to set up a new line, no. 14, that will operate seven days a week, from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., from Rosecrans Avenue and the Artesia/Harbor Transitway station via Broadway and Main Street.

Dial-a-Ride Program May Be Expanded

The Los Angeles County supervisors--all five of whom sit on the MTA’s 13-member governing board--also passed a motion allowing the expansion of the dial-a-ride program set up to provide rides to medical centers for elderly and disabled people. The supervisors now want it to include anyone who needs rides to medical facilities.

The motion was written by Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, chairwoman of the MTA board.

Burke and other board members were asked by a group of 32 ministers and political activists in the city to open the doors to negotiations so that community and religious leaders could observe the talks.

“Our constituencies are being disproportionately affected by the MTA strike,” said the Rev. Norman Johnson Sr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in a letter to Burke and other MTA board members. “We are also leaders who are concerned about the growing poverty in Los Angeles and the erosion of good middle-class jobs.”

Johnson added, “This dispute needs to be resolved, but resolved in a way that allows the MTA drivers to maintain the standard of living that they have gained over the years for themselves and their families.”

Elderly and disabled people represent the biggest bloc of purchasers of MTA monthly bus passes. County health centers and private nonprofit clinics have been reporting what they say are increases in the number of persons failing to show up for medical appointments.

The rippling impact of the strike is so serious in Huntington Park that city officials are considering suing the MTA and the bus and rail operators union.

Since the strike began, business has dropped dramatically along the city’s main business street, Pacific Boulevard, a popular Latino shopping destination that relies heavily on bus riders.

At the request of Huntington Park Councilwoman Rosario Marin, the City Council will consider a motion on Monday to sue the MTA and the bus drivers union to recover revenue losses attributed to the strike.

“I just think we have to do something,” said Marin.

The 600 merchants along the half-mile stretch produce $107 million in annual sales and generate one-third of the city’s tax revenues.

Victor Caballero, president of the Huntington Park Chamber of Commerce, said some businesses are reporting a drop of up to 40% in sales since the strike began. He said he noticed Tuesday that some businesses on the boulevard have temporarily closed due to the lack of foot traffic.

“Those stores never close,” he said. “They are always booming.”

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Times staff writer Hugo Martin contributed to this story.