Strike Halts MTA Bus, Rail Service

Los Angeles’ second transit strike in six years began early today when the union representing 4,400 bus and rail operators failed to reach a contract agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

County Federation of Labor chief Miguel Contreras and the head of the drivers’ union, James Williams, angrily announced their members’ intention to walk off the job at 12:01 today at a news conference called shortly after 10:15 p.m. Friday.

“Talks have not been fruitful. Talks have not been productive,” Contreras said, noting that the MTA negotiators sent to meet with the union Friday lacked even the power to conclude an agreement.

The fact that MTA’s on-site negotiators were compelled throughout the talks to confer by telephone with the elected officials on the agency’s board before agreeing on significant points has been a constant source of frustration to the union leaders.

“I have gone the last mile. I cannot go any farther,” said Williams, his voice heavy with anger and frustration.

As he spoke, two union members pulled out placards announcing they were on strike.

“This union” Contreras said of the drivers, “feels it is being forced out on strike” because of management’s failure to bargain seriously. “There is no way we can reach an agreement tonight,” he said.

The final breakdown in the talks came after a 60-day cooling-off period and two extensions of the strike deadline.

The strike shuts down the nation’s second-largest transit system. The walkout’s full impact, however, will not be felt until Monday, when the MTA’s 450,000 daily weekday riders try to get to jobs and school and find huge gaps in the transportation network created by idled Metro Rail trains and buses.

There are only about half as many bus and rail boardings on Saturday as there are on weekdays, and passenger traffic on Sunday is even lower.

Other bus lines in the region, like Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus and Antelope Valley Transit, will continue to operate today. Metrolink plans to add eight trains to its regular service in the San Fernando Valley when weekday commuting resumes Monday. A large number of municipal bus lines, as well as Metrolink, will honor MTA passes.

The drivers set up picket lines almost immediately. They will be honored by MTA unions representing mechanics and clerks, and dozens of other unions.

The dramatic walkout came after negotiators for the United Transportation Union and the MTA failed to find common ground on overtime pay, work rules and other issues.

What was described as a significant lack of movement by either side Friday set the stage for what would be Los Angeles’ seventh transit strike in the last 28 years, believed to be the highest number of work stoppages among the nation’s largest transit systems.

The drivers came close to walking out at 12:01 a.m. Friday, but agreed to a 24-hour delay when it appeared some progress was being made.

But after several proposals and counterproposals during the day, huge differences remained between MTA management and the drivers.

Williams came out of a morning meeting with MTA chief executive Julian Burke at the Pasadena Hilton vowing to walk out, unless MTA management delivered an acceptable contract.

“There will either be a signed contract or we are going to be on strike,” he said.

Faced with demands by MTA negotiators that unions for the drivers, mechanics and clerks make significant economic concessions, Contreras said unions would work with the MTA “but not at the expense of destroying middle-class jobs we helped create in Los Angeles.”

Transit agency officials said concessions, sometimes referred to as “givebacks,” were essential for the MTA’s financial well-being.

“The MTA is facing a massive operating deficit of more than $400 million over the next 10 years,” said MTA spokesman Marc Littman. “It is difficult, if not impossible, to raise fares. So where is the money going to come from? They’ve got to get concessions.”

If the strike continues into the workweek, estimates are that it could cost the Los Angeles area $2 million a day.

Although other municipal bus lines and Metrolink commuter trains will continue serving Los Angeles, thousands of bus riders will be left with no way to get to work. Most of the MTA’s riders are members of minority groups and are low-income wage earners; 68% make less than $15,000 a year. Three-quarters of the riders say they are transit-dependent, according to the MTA.

Earlier Friday, Fernando Guerra, head of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles, joined Gov. Gray Davis, the Bus Riders Union and others calling on the two sides to continue talking until there is a resolution of the contract dispute.

“Many of the people who depend on mass transit to get to work don’t have the type of jobs where they will get paid if they miss work,” Guerra said. “No matter what the unions gain, or what the MTA gains, more people will lose in the aggregate.”

In an indication of how far apart the two sides were, they were still tangled up Friday over about $2 million a year in overtime payments that the MTA wants to eliminate.

Although that is a relatively small amount in contrast to the MTA’s $2.5-billion annual budget, the overtime conflict has stymied progress toward a new contract for five months.

The overtime savings are part of an MTA proposal that would put about 400 operators on a four-day workweek requiring them to be on duty for 13 hours but paid for only 10, with no overtime. The three hours of unpaid time would be spent killing time in MTA recreation rooms or preparing for runs.

Overtime is a significant part of the average bus driver’s income, and the United Transportation Union estimates that the four-day week outlined by the MTA would reduce an average operator’s earnings by 15%.

Bus drivers earn $8 an hour at the entry level; the most experienced make $20.72 an hour.

A sore point among drivers is that the MTA likes to say drivers and mechanics make an average of $50,000 a year. But drivers say that consists of base pay of just under $43,000 and $7,000 in overtime, which means working a lot of weekends and holidays.

“There is hardly anyone here who can make it without overtime,” said Lawrence Tubbs, an MTA driver in El Monte. Tubbs said his income hovers between $48,000 and $52,000, but only because he is willing to work weekends and holidays. He is so close to the edge financially, he said, that losing overtime would jeopardize his ability to make car or house payments.

He said keeping overtime was worth striking over, but added that he would have a hard time making ends meet.

“If a strike is called at 12:01, I start going broke at 12:02,” he said.

The MTA wants to reduce the demand for overtime by hiring significantly more part-time drivers, who gradually would replace full-time drivers through attrition.

Transit agency negotiators have indicated that they are willing to drop the four-day workweek proposal, but say that they want the drivers union to make a counterproposal that would net the same $2 million in overtime the MTA budget-cutters say they would save in the first year of the contract. Savings over the three-year life of the contract are projected at $5 million.

Creating a new workweek, as controversial as it is, is just part of a much bigger package of cuts the MTA is reportedly seeking from drivers.

Lawrence Drasin, a United Transportation Union attorney, said the MTA is seeking $23 million in savings over three years.

The MTA is also in the process of trying to draft new contracts for the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents 1,861 mechanics, and the 650-member Transportation Communications International Union, which represents clerks.

The drivers union set the strike deadline, so talks in recent days have focused on it. Other unions said they will honor the drivers’ picket lines.

Metrolink, the commuter rail service, plans to add four midday trains each to its Antelope Valley and Ventura County lines to serve the San Fernando Valley.

The California Highway Patrol and Caltrans warned that the strike will cause traffic problems on local freeways. They are urging employers to modify work hours to avoid heavy travel at peak commuting times and to allow employees to work at home if possible.

Eight municipal bus operators will continue to serve downtown Los Angeles and honor MTA passes. They are: Antelope Valley Transit, Foothill Transit, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation with its DASH and Commuter Express buses, Long Beach Transit, Montebello Bus Lines, Santa Clarita buses, Torrance Transit, and Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus.