Outside Panel Is Proposed by MTA

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board proposed Wednesday to bring in a panel of mediators to solve the monthlong transit strike and that workers return to their jobs while that happens.

The proposal was made after efforts to resolve the MTA mechanics strike, which has halted countywide bus and train service for about 400,000 daily riders, ground to a halt. The two sides have not had a face-to-face dialogue since last month, and last Friday the mechanics union voted overwhelmingly to turn down the MTA’s “last, best and final” contract offer.

Until now, the MTA board has resisted calls for an outside panel to help end the strike. It has been under increasing pressure to submit to binding arbitration, in which an outside panel decides on a contract that both sides must accept.

The MTA appears to be changing course, if only slightly.

County Supervisor and MTA board Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky said the transit agency would offer the union “nonbinding mediation/arbitration,” which he said could “break the logjam.”

Under the plan, the MTA’s mechanics would go back to work for their current wages and benefits while a three-member panel worked on a solution to the health-care issue that has become the sticking point. Compensation would rise after completion of work on the health-care solution. The panel’s proposal could be voted down by the union or a 60% majority of the MTA board, which consists of the five county supervisors, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, three members of the Los Angeles City Council and four others.

Mechanics union President Neil Silver said he was “extremely skeptical” of the idea but would consider it.

“It is an interesting proposal,” Silver said. “But there are a lot of questions about it for us. More questions than answers.... I’m not sure what anyone would gain by something that could be backed off of so easily.” Silver said he would seek legal advice on various fronts. For example, if, after several weeks, no solution was agreed on, would he have the right to go on strike again? He also said he was skeptical of an offer that would have his workers going back to their jobs under the union’s old contract, which lapsed in 2002.

Under the provisions of that contract, Silver contends, his workers have not received adequate wage hikes and the union’s health plan has floundered. The union uses a $17-million health fund paid for by the MTA to buy insurance for about 2,800 active and retired mechanics and service workers. But the fund is nearly insolvent. The MTA says mismanagement is to blame. Silver blames out-of-control insurance rates.

Though Yaroslavsky said the board unanimously backed the move, at least one board member voiced strong reservations.

“It is just another form of hot air,” said Los Angeles Councilman Martin Ludlow. Allowing the board to reject an idea by an outside party, he said, won’t work. “Binding arbitration is the way to go.... Both sides need to give more.”