BUSES ROLL AS STRIKE ENDS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Buses started rolling late Monday after the MTA and its striking mechanics union announced a tentative agreement that leaves the divisive health care issues unresolved but gives workers more in their paycheck to end the devastating 35-day walkout.

More buses as well as the subway and Metro Blue Line should be up and running this morning, with all rides for free until Saturday as service is restored for more than 400,000 primarily poor and working-class riders stranded by the walkout. Passes will be honored through the end of the year without riders paying more though it could take a long time for ridership to reach its former level.

After 10 strikes over 40 years, the two sides pulled late-night sessions over the weekend to seal the deal announced by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky, flanked by many fellow MTA board members and Amalgamated Transit Union President Neil Silver, outside the county Hall of Administration.

``The overall package, it's fair to both sides,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``It's a very fair deal for us. Affordable, sustainable - remembering the health package is still unresolved - and it's fair to (the union).''

Silver said the tentative deal had no ``take-aways'' from his workers and he would encourage them to approve it at a union vote scheduled for Wednesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

``I am glad it's finally come to an end,'' said Silver. ``We can get the buses and trains on a roll.''

Mayor James Hahn, who sits on the MTA board but was not at the afternoon press conference because he was in Sacramento for the inauguration of Gov. Arnold Swarzenegger, later welcomed the agreement.

``It's just great news for Los Angeles transit users, as well as everyone who uses our streets and highways here in Los Angeles,'' the mayor said.

``It's a fair deal given the tight financial times.''

Riders relished the chance for some normalcy after having their lives seriously disrupted for more than a month, unable to get to jobs, doctors appointments and - for some of the 20,000 student pass holders - to Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.

``We're massively overjoyed,'' said San Fernando Valley transit advocate Bart Reed, executive director of The Transit Coalition and a member of the MTA's Valley advisory board.

``We can slowly, but surely, as the transit service gets running... we can go back to our lives again that have been cruelly disrupted by this action,'' Reed said.

After passionate and often harsh rhetoric and talks stalled for weeks, the two sides shared camaraderie Monday afternoon.

They graciously thanked one another for sticking through the long sessions - nearly 12 hours Friday night and as many on Sunday - to get to an agreement.

It was Yaroslavsky and City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa who worked late with union negotiators and MTA staffers over the weekend as the deal was reached very late Sunday night.

Villaraigosa stepped into talks last week after a judge ruled that he, the mayor, Councilman Martin Ludlow and Supervisor Gloria Molina could participate despite having accepted campaign contributions from unions that had prevented them from being involved under MTA's strict ethics rules.

``Had it not been for the judicial system of the United States, the great state of California... we'd probably still be on strike,'' Silver said.

``It's a lot different when you have the chairman of the board and the councilman at the table,'' he said.

Villaraigosa said he pressed the two sides to keep talking.

``At the end of the day, there's no substitution for face-to-face negotiations, for not only talking together, but listening,'' he said.

The bus drivers' United Transportation Union, whose members have been honoring the picket line along with other MTA workers, urged its workers to get their schedules for returning to work.

``We're delighted that the strike is over. Our people will be able to go to work and provide the transportation this county needs,'' said UTU consultant Goldy Norton.

The mechanics, who earn $50,000 on average, have been on strike since Oct. 14 to preserve generous benefits that offer free health care until they're 65, after which they pay $21 monthly.

Details of the contract were not disclosed as both sides wanted it to be presented to union membership for their Wednesday vote.

Yaroslavsky announced at the press conference that it was a three-year, nine-month contract that offered wages comparable to those offered other workers, and that the health care issues would go to nonbinding arbitration.

The nonbinding arbitration would be similar to what had been proposed last week - a three-person panel with either the MTA or union being able to reject the recommendation with a two-thirds majority vote of their board.

Retiree health care benefits remained the stalling point, though all the health care issues will go before the arbitrator.

On pay, raises agreed to over the weekend amount to 7 percent - 2 percent retroactive for last year, no pay raise this year and 2.5 percent pay raises in each of the next two years, sources said.

The union had been seeking a 10.5 percent pay raise over three years, plus incremental quarterly pay hikes; the MTA had previously offered a 6 percent raise over four years that included the quarterly hikes. The new proposal does away with the quarterlies.

The bus drivers also have been working on a new contract and Ludlow said he has been working during the past week with them to get resolution.

The two sides said they were making progress in those talks, but that work remained.

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, left, and Neil Silver of the MTA mechanics union announce an agreement to end the transit strike.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer