MTA Union Sets Friday Deadline for Strike

Ratcheting up the pressure on the MTA, the union representing the agency’s bus drivers and train operators said Saturday that its members will go on strike early Friday morning if there is no agreement on a new contract.

“If the MTA does not come to the bargaining table as soon as possible with a new sense of urgency, there is going to be a work stoppage this Friday” at 12:01 a.m., said James Williams, general chairman of the United Transportation Union.

In response, Allan Lipsky, MTA’s chief operating officer, invited the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s unions to resume negotiations this weekend and avoid waiting until the last minute to reach a deal on a new contract.

“At the 11th hour, the MTA has to consider the welfare of its riders and the public, while the unions only have to consider improvements for their already well-paid members,” Lipsky said. “There is always time to address the benefits the union wants to add to its contracts, but never time to address the MTA’s issues. We cannot allow that to happen in this round of negotiations--too much is at stake.”

Although the representatives of the United Transportation Union and the MTA expressed a willingness to begin bargaining immediately, no meetings are scheduled until Monday in Pasadena.

The leader of the union that represents MTA’s mechanics had expressed optimism Friday because of the presence of a high-level mediator sent by Gov. Gray Davis. However, Williams did not share that enthusiasm Saturday.

His ultimatum reflects what the union believes has been a slow pace in talks over a new three-year contract. He blamed the inability to reach agreement on the MTA’s insistence for changes in work rules, benefits and job protections.

The union is particularly upset about the agency’s proposal of a four-day, 10-hour-a-day workweek for a small number of drivers.

Williams said the proposal that calls for drivers to work 10 hours a day spread over 12 hours without overtime “is a dead-out giveaway” by the union, and is unacceptable. “That’s going backwards, not forwards,” he said at the union’s Irwindale office. “It just can’t happen here.”

He warned that the long days, plus the time it takes drivers to get to and from work could create such fatigue that passenger safety could be threatened.

MTA officials reject such suggestions, noting that some of its drivers already work long days with overtime and do not compromise safety.

Lipsky said the union has refused to negotiate on the proposal for a four-day workweek. Altogether, he said, there are 14 issues still to be settled with the drivers.

Lipsky offered to meet one of the union’s demands--increased payments for employee health insurance--if the agency receives a detailed accounting of where the money goes that is paid to union trust funds for such benefits.

The union’s decision to give advance warning of a strike came near the end of a five-day extension of their contract, which expired at midnight Saturday. All the unions have agreed to continue working without a contract.

The drivers union and the Transportation Communications International Union, which represents MTA clerks and customer service agents, had promised to give at least five days advance warning of any walkout.

Neil Silver, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents the MTA’s mechanics, said Saturday his union will go back to the bargaining table Tuesday.

But if the drivers strike Friday, Silver said, his members will join the walkout. “I hope it won’t come to that,” he said.

Representatives of the Transportation Communications International Union could not be reached Saturday to determine its stance on the strike warning.

While the MTA and the United Transportation Union accused the other of posturing before the cameras, the presence of a firm strike deadline could provide another jolt to jump-start negotiations that have dragged on for months.

At the request of Gov. Davis, the director of the state Department of Industrial Relations intervened Thursday and Friday in an effort to mediate the differences between the unions and MTA. Lipsky, who held his news conference outside MTA headquarters, called the increased involvement of state mediators a positive development that could encourage the parties to reach a settlement. “It can only help,” he said.

Lipsky said a walkout would seriously affect the 450,000 people who ride MTA buses and trains each day. “A transit strike in L.A. would be a terrible problem, both for our bus and rail riders and the general public,” he said. “They are basically holding our passengers hostage.”

In a walkout, all MTA rail service would stop and the agency would only be able to put at most 100 buses instead of its usual fleet of 2,000 on the streets. The MTA would operate only five bus lines, a fraction of the normal 200 routes.

Before leaving Union Station for Long Beach, MTA bus driver Tony Thomas said he was 100% behind the union going on strike to win a new contract if that becomes necessary.

“If that’s what it takes, that’s exactly what we should do,” Thomas said from behind the wheel of the No. 60 bus. “It would hurt the city, it would hurt everyone involved, but we have to take a stand somewhere. If the strike is what we have to do, that’s what we’re going to do.”