3 Unions, MTA Reach Rare Accord

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has entered into a three-year tentative agreement with its bus drivers and mechanics, ensuring that mass transit in Los Angeles County will continue uninterrupted by labor strife, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Tuesday.

It is the first time in nearly a decade that MTA labor negotiations have ended without a bus strike. Three years ago, mechanics walked off the job, shutting down public transit for 35 days. Three years before that, drivers went on strike for 32 days.

“The buses will continue to roll and the trains will keep on running without interruptions,” said a beaming Villaraigosa, who was flanked by union officials at a news conference outside MTA headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

No details of the contracts between the MTA and three unions were released Tuesday, but the mayor described the accord as “both fair to our employees and fiscally responsible.”

In recent weeks, the MTA Board of Directors, led by Villaraigosa, has struggled to cut costs and increase revenue in the face of a $131-million operating deficit.

This year’s negotiations -- the first ever to conclude before contracts actually expire on June 30 -- mark a sharp contrast to previous labor talks, in which MTA and union officials went to war over every detail.

“I know that our community could not go through another strike and at the end of the day it wasn’t going to benefit anyone at all,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who succeeds Villaraigosa as MTA chairman Saturday.

The tentative contracts were negotiated with the United Transportation Union, representing 4,800 bus drivers and rail operators; the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing 2,000 maintenance and service workers; and the Transportation Communications Union, representing 700 clerical workers.

The MTA board and the unions’ rank-and-file members, who represent about 80% of the agency’s workforce, still must ratify contract terms.

James A. Williams, general chairman of the United Transportation Union, was optimistic. “We reached a good agreement,” he said. “My members are going to like it.”

Negotiations began in November, when MTA officials introduced an “interest-based” approach that participants said relied on mutual respect among participants.

“I knew that when you give people respect and you listen on both sides and you try to figure out problems and solutions, that anything is possible,” Villaraigosa said Tuesday.

Three years ago, Villaraigosa, a former Assembly speaker and union organizer, was credited with helping to end the strike that left hundreds of thousands of poor, transit-dependent bus and rail riders stranded.

He got involved late, however, because he and three other MTA members were initially barred from negotiating with the unions because they had received campaign contributions from the Amalgamated Transit Union.

A judge later reversed the MTA ruling, allowing Villaraigosa’s involvement.

In 2000, MTA bus drivers and train operators struck for 32 days. That walkout was resolved after the Rev. Jesse Jackson was brought in to mediate a settlement.

Agreement on a contract averted a strike in 1997. But in 1994, MTA mechanics went on strike for nine days.

Although admittedly skeptical at first, both MTA board members and union officials Tuesday praised what Villaraigosa described as a “win-win” process and outcome.

“I figured it wouldn’t work and I didn’t really want to partake in a time-wasting event,” Amalgamated Transit Union President Neil Silver said. “Later, it did work and this is the result. I’m very happy.”

This year, the MTA relied on a team of inexperienced negotiators.

But unlike past labor talks, the negotiators were determined to show respect toward union leaders, said John B. Catoe Jr., who led the MTA’s team.

“We listened. We didn’t challenge them on issues that we didn’t understand,” said Catoe, who put aside his regular duties as the MTA’s deputy chief executive officer to negotiate the contracts full time. “It didn’t mean we agreed, but we respected each other.”

In recent weeks, talks intensified, Catoe said. Both sides were determined to meet the Friday deadline -- a date particularly important to the mayor, whose MTA chairmanship was about to end. They worked into the night and on weekends at MTA headquarters and the nearby Caltrans building, snacking on candy bars and potato chips.

Molina said that the lessons learned during the process should be applied daily to ongoing employee relations.

“We need to be at the table every single day, working on solutions to make our system work for everyone involved,” she said.

*

Begin text of infobox

L.A. transit strikes

*--* Date Striking union Length Feb.-March 1972 Amalgamated Transit Union 6 days Aug.-Oct. 1974 United Transportation Union 68 days Aug.-Sept. 1976 Amalgamated Transit Union 36 days Aug.-Sept. 1979 Amalgamated Transit Union; Brotherhood 23 days of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks Sept. 1982 United Transportation Union 5 days July-Aug. 1994 Amalgamated Transit Union 9 days Sept.-Oct. 2000 United Transportation Union 32 days Oct.-Nov. 2003 Amalgamated Transit Union 35 days

*--*

*

Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority