MTA, Unions Continue Negotiations

Talks aimed at avoiding a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus and rail transit strike continued behind closed doors Sunday in Pasadena, but both sides reported little substantive progress.

The MTA’s contract with 6,800 bus and rail operators, mechanics and clerks will expire at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday if the two sides fail to reach agreement.

A strike would effectively shut down bus and rail service for the MTA’s roughly 450,000 daily passengers.

MTA spokesman Mark Littman said discussions are friendly and that both sides plan to “work around the clock” to reach agreement.

The United Transportation Union authorized a strike in June and was joined by the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents mechanics. Also participating in talks is the Transportation Communications Union representing hundreds of dispatchers and clerical workers.

MTA management has offered to extend beyond the deadline the transit workers’ contracts, but only on the condition that the three unions that represent them give a 10-day warning of any strike. Traditionally, unions operate on a 72-hour warning period.

There was no word whether the unions intend to accept that offer or negotiate a shorter advance notice.

However, no one on either side is predicting a strike by Tuesday.

The contract originally was set to expire June 30, but Gov. Gray Davis intervened and the courts ordered a 60-day “cooling off period” to allow more time to negotiate.

MTA negotiators have proposed a four-day workweek to reduce overtime, changes in the handling of workers’ compensation cases and changes to work rules that sometimes require highly paid mechanics to do jobs that could be done by lower-wage workers.

Looming over the talks is a proposal to divide the sprawling district into transit zones to be operated by independent bus companies.