BOARD PRESSED L.A. COUNTY SUPERVISORS HOLD OUT AGAINST MOUNTING LABOR ATTACKS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Despite heavy alliances with organized labor, Los Angeles County supervisors have taken an unusually tough stance in the county worker and MTA strikes, ignoring mounting pressure from unions, state lawmakers and even religious figures.

As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority transit strike enters its fifth week and talks continue with county workers, supervisors - three of them Democrats with labor alliances - say the financial fate of the county and transit agency are at stake.

But now they face unprecedented attacks from an array of interests, including state legislators who plan to convene today to figure out how to take control of the MTA board from supervisors.

``Jesse Jackson is in town urging us to cave. Cardinal Roger Mahony wants us to cave. The Legislature wants us to cave. The reason we're in this mess is because previous boards caved and didn't hold the line,'' Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

``If we don't hold the line, it won't matter. The MTA will collapse of its own weight. The MTA won't be able to operate with these excessive costs.''

Facing a projected 10-year deficit of $438 million, the 13-member MTA board is fighting to save $23 million over three years through work rule reforms.

This comes after years of concessions to the unions, including in 1997 when the board approved quarterly cost-of-living wage hikes for drivers, in addition to increases in base pay of 1.5 percent each year.

Also that year, the board approved a three-year contract with the Amalgamated Transit Union that provided employees with a yearly base pay increase of 1.5 percent, quarterly wage adjustments of six cents an hour, the option of compensation time in lieu of overtime and the establishment of a 401(k) savings plan.

In negotiations with 47,000 county workers, supervisors are also seeking to hold the line in negotiations with members of Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union. The county has offered a 9 percent wage hike over three years, while the county worker union is seeking a 15.5 percent wage hike.

The supervisors fear if they overextend themselves, the county could again face bankruptcy as it did in 1995 when they won a five-year $1 billion federal bailout that kept them from having to close public hospitals and clinics.

Now the county faces the prospect of a $500 million deficit in the health-care system, placing it at risk once again with little hope of federal intervention.

``The state of California did not provide the return of property taxes we have supported,'' Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said. ``We have to be sure our budget is balanced. We can't print money.''

Today, state lawmakers will try to exert their influence to force the supervisors to concede to the unions. Five Assembly and state Senate committees have scheduled the special emergency meeting at the Junipero Serra State Building in Los Angeles.

State Senate Majority Whip Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, who is helping oversee the hearing, said he intends to propose a reconfiguration of the MTA board, eliminating two mayoral appointments, two county supervisors and two other seats.

Under his proposal, which would require passage of legislation next session, the board would be reduced to six elected members. The Legislature created the original composition of the MTA board.

Alarcon said the current MTA board does not reflect the ethnic make-up of Los Angeles County and the board supports the break-up of the MTA into smaller transit zones with an emphasis on expanding the subway and rail system.

``I believe that the board members might be blinded by their past decisions to support rail,'' he said. ``By doing that, they have entrenched themselves in a way that they cannot resolve without some help.''

Alarcon is also upset at the possibility the MTA board may opt at some point to hire temporary employees to drive the buses and subways.

``Any replacement of bus drivers would be a backward step in resolving this strike,'' Alarcon said. ``It would force the working public against the working bus drivers.''

Antonovich said if the Legislature wants to help they should urge the unions to go back to work.

``Right now, the union is spending about $30,000 to bring Rev. Jesse Jackson here to give a speech,'' Antonovich said. ``Alarcon is just doing what the unions want him to do.''

Yaroslavsky said the public would not look favorably at Alarcon for stacking the MTA board with ``big spenders.''

``This board has expended a tremendous amount of political capital in the interest of the bus-riding and taxpaying public,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``The reward should not be for (Alarcon) to stack the deck with people who will give away the store.''

Although county government workers have won lucrative pension and other benefit enhancements over the years, county employees' salary increases have remained relatively modest since voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978.

The county could not immediately provide salary hike figures prior to 1993, but county statistics show workers got no raises during a wage freeze from 1993 to '97 and a 12 percent hike from 1997 until this year.

``I don't see how they can say they gave the unions too much in the past when in fact wages were frozen for four or five years and overall during the 1990s, county workers lost ground as wage increases didn't even keep up with the rate of inflation,'' said Bart Diener, assistant general manager of Local 660.

Over the decades, MTA workers have won numerous concessions from the MTA board and its predecessor, gaining generous union contracts. At the same time, the MTA board boxed itself into a corner by spending billions on the nation's most expensive subway system and continuing to expand mass transit.

The agency has amassed more than $7 billion in debt. The debt service alone adds up to $343 million a year, more than the MTA's total payroll.

UTU spokesman Goldy Norton declined to comment about contracts the union has received over the years.

Yaroslavsky said the supervisors are taking the same tactic they did in 1997 in an attempt to be fair with its employees.

``What has changed this time is the unions have upped the ante,'' he said. ``They have sought to gain advantage beyond the parameters of what they lived with in the past. It's created a tension and a battle between some of the unions and the board, and in the case of the county and MTA strikes.''