Bill Keeping Transit Workers’ Pay, Benefits Intact Headed to Governor

A bill that would keep transit workers’ wages and benefits intact--but could also kill a proposed separate San Fernando Valley transportation district--cleared a final state Senate vote Thursday and is now headed to Gov. Gray Davis.

Davis vetoed a nearly identical bill last year, angering labor unions who backed the legislation to protect workers at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from possible competition.

The Senate bill, SB 1101, by state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City), ensures that operators of a new transit zone, such as the one proposed for the Valley, would retain the wages and benefits of workers now paid by the MTA.

The Senate’s 22 to 17 vote approving the bill came as negotiators for the MTA and transit workers struggled over contracts for bus and rail operators, mechanics and clerical workers that expired earlier this summer.

Negotiators have said a strike could occur as early as 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. It would be the first walkout since 1994, which lasted nine days.

Davis has not indicated whether he will sign SB 1101. But in his 1999 veto of similar legislation, he said he did not believe the state should intervene in a local issue between labor unions and an agency.

Last Friday the unions and the MTA had hammered out an agreement designed to accommodate the new transit zone. But Barry Broad, a lobbyist for the Amalgamated Transit Union, said the MTA on Tuesday reneged on the deal and discussions had regressed from there.

“We tried again to resolve it today,” Broad said. “We will make our case to the governor about this.”

But Tom Webb, a negotiator leading the MTA’s talks, said the agency offered the union “the same assurances that the bill provides them.”

“We do not understand why we don’t have an agreement,” Webb said. “We were extremely disappointed at the outcome.”

The MTA, Webb said, agreed to a new zone that would accept current collective bargaining agreements and units, and would provide protections for wages, jobs, health care and benefits. The protections would be for three years, plus a renewal of three years, Webb said.

But in the end, those discussions failed.

Opponents of SB 1101 say the legislation is a financial roadblock to forming a new transit district in the Valley.

The Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. opposed last year’s bill and the current one.

“The situation hasn’t changed, it’s still the same bill,” said Scott O. Schmidt, VICA government liaison director. “The bill is still an obstacle to forming a transit zone.”

VICA, he said, is hopeful Davis will repeat his veto power.

For a new transit zone, the MTA board has stipulated that it must demonstrate a 15% savings and improved service.

But Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) added an amendment to SB 1101 in July that removes the requirement that a new zone operate more cheaply.