MTA Fails to Reach a Pact

Negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the union representing its mechanics ended Sunday evening without an agreement, leaving open the prospect of a strike that could cripple most of the county’s bus and rail system.

Frustrated by the failure to reach an agreement, Neil Silver, the leader of the MTA’s mechanics union, said his workers would strike Tuesday barring a sudden change in the negotiations.

“Unless something happens, we will be on strike by [Tuesday] night at midnight,” said Silver, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents about 2,500 workers at the MTA.

Negotiators for the union and the MTA met for about eight hours on Sunday. The two sides were facing a midnight deadline, when a court-ordered injunction barring a strike or lockout was to end.

After Sunday’s discussions, MTA spokesmen said they were hopeful a deal could be reached. But Silver said he was unhappy with offers he was getting from the transit agency and ready to have his workers walk off the job. “I sat around all weekend, and they just mealy-mouthed around the issues.... We got nowhere,” he said.

Silver said that he would be willing to come back to the bargaining table today if a state mediator overseeing the talks called the two sides together again. He said the only way to avert a walkout by mechanics would be for such a meeting to take place and for it to go well.

Sunday’s talks focused on fiscal matters relating to the union’s health fund.

The union pays for its workers’ health insurance from the fund, to which the MTA directly contributes. Until about a year ago, it had cost about $1.4 million per month for payouts and administration. Those costs have risen to about $1.9 million per month, according to Silver, who said the fund is now insolvent.

The two sides did not agree on what was offered Sunday, as they recounted discussions about the fund.

MTA spokesman Marc Littman said that MTA negotiators offered to match the monthly contributions made to mechanics with the highest amount contributed to its other employee groups, including drivers, clerks, a union of supervisors and non-contract employees like planners.

Each mechanic receives $533 per month for health care. The supervisors and planners currently get the most: $607 per month.

Silver said no such offer had been made.

The two sides did agree that under the MTA’s latest offer, the transit agency would temporarily take control of the mechanics’ health fund, a move that the agency believes would help “restore it to health” by making changes in management, said an agency spokesman.

“There’s no way they are going to get [control of] the fund,” Silver said.

One possible way to avert a strike is for the two sides to duplicate a move made recently by the MTA drivers union in its difficult talks with the transit agency. When a court-ordered cooling-off period concluded in those talks in September, the two sides agreed to extend negotiations indefinitely. The MTA and its drivers, represented by the United Transportation Union, resume negotiations today.

Even if the drivers reached an agreement, an MTA shutdown would occur if Silver’s mechanics walked off their jobs. That’s because unions at the MTA have pledged to honor one another’s picket lines.

Three years ago, the drivers union walked off the job for 32 days and was joined by the other unions.

The strike left the roughly 400,000 riders who regularly depend on MTA service looking for other options.

MTA bus service, the subway and Blue and Green light railways all shut down.

The agency was able to run a few bus lines with private carriers.

An MTA strike would not affect Metrolink commuter rail service or smaller bus agencies in cities such as Montebello, Santa Monica and Long Beach.