Bus Drivers Union, MTA See Progress as Deadline Approaches

Heading toward a Monday midnight deadline, negotiators representing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the bus drivers union reported some progress on a new contract Saturday, but said they were still far from an agreement.

Talks between the MTA and three of its unions continued all day at the Pasadena Hilton and are scheduled to resume today and continue through Labor Day.

Both sides said they hope to avert a strike, which would effectively shut down bus and rail service for the MTA’s roughly 450,000 daily passengers.

MTA negotiators are conducting simultaneous talks with unions representing bus and rail operators, mechanics and clerical workers.

“There has been progress, and we want to continue on that progress,” Tom Webb, the MTA’s chief negotiator, said during a break in talks.

Goldy Norton, a spokesman for the United Transportation Union, which represents drivers, said, “We have made a pledge to our members, and basically to the public, that we will do everything in our power to reach an agreement without the need for a work stoppage.”

But, Norton said, “We are a long way off.”

Webb said points of disagreement between MTA managers and the three unions center on “productivity issues,” rather than salaries and fringe benefits.

Among the issues MTA negotiators have put on the table are a proposal for a four-day workweek, which the transit agency believes would reduce overtime. MTA management also is seeking changes in the handling of workers’ compensation cases, which the MTA says cost the district $70 million a year in claims.

Also on the table are proposals by MTA managers to change historic work rules, which in some cases require highly paid mechanics to do work that just as easily could be done by lower-wage workers.

Further casting a huge shadow over the talks is the future of proposals to carve up the sprawling district into transit zones that would be operated by independent bus companies.

Talks over new contracts have been going on since spring. The old contracts were set to expire on June 30 when the transit district appealed to Gov. Gray Davis and eventually won a 60-day “cooling off” period through the courts that allowed the contracts to be extended until midnight Monday.