MTA, Unions Dig In for Strike Over Workweek

The critical issue driving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its Los Angeles bus drivers toward a strike early Friday is management’s more-work-for-less-pay proposal, which envisions some drivers working four 10-hour days each week without overtime.

With the bus drivers union calling the proposal totally unacceptable--and the MTA refusing to withdraw it--the issue of longer workdays for less pay has driven the nation’s second-largest bus system to the brink of a devastating strike.

Several hundred Orange County commuters could be stranded if a strike does happen.

Julian Burke, the MTA’s chief executive officer, criticized the union’s refusal to negotiate Tuesday, and conceded for the first time that a strike appears imminent.

Burke expressed frustration with the union’s refusal to entertain proposals on the four-day week and other management efforts to rewrite what he called “antiquated work rules.”

“If we make no progress at all,” Burke said, “I certainly am going to recommend to the [MTA] board that they have to get ready to stand a strike because we haven’t had any reasonable negotiation.”

Goldy Norton, spokesman for the drivers union, said: “They are dug in. We are dug in. As long as they stay with the [four-day workweek], there is no way in the world we are ever going to get anywhere.”

Norton said union leaders told the MTA from the first day of negotiations last spring that the proposal was unacceptable.

“They were told they would not be allowed to destroy the work rules,” Norton said, calling the proposal a threat to the earning power of union members. “They refuse to accept the message. They are forcing this strike.”

The drivers union has set a deadline of 12:01 a.m. Friday for its walkout if no contract is reached. Unions representing MTA’s mechanics and clerks have said they will honor the drivers’ picket lines.

The Orange County Transportation Authority runs four bus lines into Los Angeles County on weekdays, including the popular Route No. 60 that begins in Tustin and rolls through Santa Ana and Westminster on its way to Cal State Long Beach and the Long Beach Transit Mall, where some riders board the Blue Line subway into Los Angeles.

“It’s one of our more busy routes,” OCTA spokesman George Urch said Tuesday of Route No. 60. The transportation agency estimates that about 350 people take that line into Long Beach on weekdays.

In addition, OCTA runs weekday express routes from Fullerton (721) and Huntington Beach (701) into downtown Los Angeles, providing service for about 250 passengers a day. A fourth OCTA line begins in Anaheim and carries about 80 people each day to Cerritos, where many transfer to MTA bus lines, Urch said.

The MTA also runs four lines (460, 130, 490, 471) from Los Angeles into Orange County, which means that some Los Angeles County people trying to get to Disneyland, Cal State Fullerton, the Brea Mall, Anaheim and Fullerton might be looking for a new ride.

“A lot of people don’t have cars,” Urch said. “They don’t have a choice. Public transportation is a necessity.”

Urch went on, “We’re urging people to monitor the situation.”

Hundreds of worried commuters have already jammed OCTA’s phone lines, competing with local riders confused this week by new bus routes. OCTA’s 40 customer service lines were hammered with more than 2,600 calls on Monday and 2,200 on Tuesday, Urch said. Of those, about 15% sought information on the possibility of a strike.

“A lot of people were unsure, confused, thinking that we were the MTA and that we might be going on strike,” Urch said.

OCTA drivers belong to the Teamsters union, which has no plans to strike in Orange County, he said.

However, a big unknown for OCTA is whether some of its bus drivers will show solidarity and refuse to drive OCTA buses across the county line into Los Angeles County.

“I would hate to speculate on what individual drivers will do,” Urch said. “But we will have buses that will be running into Los Angeles.”

Although Metrolink trains are expected to roll from Orange County to Los Angeles’ Union Station, riders could find themselves hoofing it from there if they normally transferred to an MTA bus.

“There potentially could be impacts to Metrolink riders if they are dependent on additional transportation once they get to their Los Angeles County destination,” Urch said.

The work-rules issue thrusts the MTA and its unions into the heart of a national debate over how long commercial truck drivers, bus operators and others should be allowed to sit behind the wheel during each workday. Numerous studies link long hours behind the wheel to fatigue, stress and injury.

But the MTA sees the four-day workweek as a crucial element in a new labor contract to reduce costs and help pay for an ambitious expansion of bus and rail service.

The transit agency denies that there is any connection between driver safety and the 10-hour day, saying that the current contract dispute is all about money because the MTA train and bus operators already work long hours in their pursuit of maximum overtime.

Indeed, the MTA’s goal in the contract talks is also about money--the hourly cost of operating a bus. Burke said the agency already has reduced its cost from $108 to $98 an hour and wants to shave off an additional $2 with the new contract.

The United Transportation Union, which represents 4,300 bus and train operators, views the four-day-week proposal as a “take away” because union members would be losing overtime pay they now receive

The MTA contends that its drivers make an average of $50,000 a year, with some making as much as an additional $20,000 in overtime.

The proposal is targeted at about 400 drivers, who now work split shifts that require them to be on duty 10 hours a day while being paid for eight hours. Currently, these drivers can work up to 10 hours a day and receive time and a half pay for the two overtime hours. Under the proposal, sometimes referred to as the “4/10/13 plan,” they would work four days, get paid for 10 hours, and be required to be on duty for 13 hours.

Not only would the proposal deprive drivers of overtime pay that they now receive if they work a 10-hour day, but the MTA plans to reduce the demand for future overtime by moving in more part-time drivers to replace full-time drivers who retire or leave the MTA.

Expanding the dispute beyond pay and overtime issues, the bus drivers union contends that the work rule changes could endanger the public because of additional stress and fatigue on drivers.

Transit agency officials were particularly rankled when United Transportation Union General Chairman James A. Williams alleged that “we believe this is a serious threat to the safety and well-being of the schoolchildren and others who are dependent on public transit.”

MTA officials insist that money, not safety, is the issue. “If there is that much concern about drivers’ safety and fatigue, then why are they allowing their drivers to work so much overtime now?” asked Marc Littman, an MTA spokesman. “We are only targeting drivers who are working long shifts now.”

The issue of safety is especially critical to the MTA because the agency already has one of the highest worker injury claims rates in the transit industry.

The MTA points out that the transit agency’s workers’ compensation claim payment rate is six times that of New York City Transit.

Several recent studies indicate a link between long hours driving and fatigue and other health problems.

Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.