MTA DECLARES IMPASSE, WILL OFFER CONTRACT FOR VOTE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Frustrated after a weekend of talks produced no progress toward ending the 14-day transit strike, the MTA on Monday declared an impasse with its mechanics union, halting further negotiations and asking rank-and-file members to vote on the agency's offer.

As soon as today, the MTA will begin mailing and passing out its ``last, best and final offer'' to mechanics on picket lines, hoping to win over workers who have lost $2,000 on average so far in the two-week strike and bypass union leadership.

But the declaration means it could be weeks before an end to the strike - particularly affecting the city's poor who depend on buses and trains - because union members don't have to vote and no deadline was set.

``Time's a-wasting. People are being hurt every day, both our customers and our employees,'' Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Roger Snoble said at an afternoon news conference, flanked by nearly all nine members of the MTA board who can participate in contract talks.

``The ball's in their court,'' he said. ``The offer on the table's the offer on the table. My board's made it very clear to me they're not going to change that.''

Health care has been a main issue launching what has become the fifth- longest strike in Los Angeles in decades.

Snoble called the mechanics' offer presented Saturday ``totally unsatisfactory,'' saying the two sides remained $98 million apart - $37 million apart on health care benefits alone.

Mechanics union President Neil Silver blasted the MTA for holding a news conference rather than meeting at the bargaining table, and doubted his members would be interested in voting for the contract.

``This is about our present, our future. ... This is about health care for our retirees, health care for our workers. You think they're going to cave?'' said Silver, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which includes 2,000 mechanics and service workers and 500 retirees. ``Do you think we're going to let that happen?''

Silver pointed to MTA officials' salaries and construction budgets he said they want to pay for ``on the backs of the retirees.''

Silver is running for re-election next month, and MTA Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky has said the strike has been caught up in internal politics.

Silver denounced that Monday, saying, ``Health care is not political. Prescription drugs are not political.''

Declaring an impasse calls off any further negotiations unless the union is prepared to submit a new offer, officials said.

The MTA hopes the workers will vote to approve its offer.

But if the workers decline, or choose not to vote on it, the MTA could consider the next step of unilaterally imposing a one-year contract.

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com