MTA Talks Continue; Riordan Predicts End of Strike Is Near

Negotiators for striking bus drivers met again Saturday with Metropolitan Transportation Authority executives, hoping the presence of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a willingness by both sides to reach a deal would bring an end to the lengthy bus and rail strike.

“I’m hoping that by this time [today] or by this time Monday, this matter will be done and the buses will be running,” said James A. Williams, chairman of the drivers’ United Transportation Union.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan predicted the walkout could be over within the next few days.

“I’ve been optimistic all along and wrong all along but this time I do think we’ve made some progress,” Riordan said. “We’re about one third of the way there, but the next two thirds will be much easier.”

Williams presented MTA negotiators with a counteroffer Saturday that he said represented a compromise between the last offer made by transit agency leaders and his union’s steadfast opposition to plans to add hundreds of new part-time driving jobs as a way to reduce overtime and personnel costs.

Jackson, who joined the talks Friday, returned to the Pasadena Hilton for the new round of talks on what was the 29th day of the strike. Also present was Riordan, county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who heads the MTA board of directors, and Miguel Contreras, executive secretary-treasurer of the county Federation of Labor.

The two sides met for less than an hour, then adjourned to assess the latest proposal.

“Hopes are high,” Jackson said. “We are too close to walk away.”

A major sticking point remains the MTA’s push to add hundreds of part-time drivers.

The MTA, facing what it estimates to be a $438-million operating deficit over the next 10 years, has taken a hard line in negotiations, which began last April, asking the drivers union to give back some of the gains it made in earlier contracts. One of those is a limit on the use of part-time drivers.

A source close to the UTU bargaining team said that once the part-time issue is settled he believes all the other differences will fall into place quickly.

The strike is being led by the drivers union. The MTA is also negotiating three-year contracts with the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1277, which represents 1,860 MTA mechanics, and the 650-member Transportation Communications Union’s bargaining unit.

The mechanics are believed to be very close to an agreement. Neil Silver, the ATU president, said the MTA will not meet with that union again until Monday.

“I would say the proposals are very close now,” Silver said.

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Laura Wides is a Times correspondent and Douglas P. Shuit is a staff writer.