MTA WANTS NEW MEDIATOR IN BUS STRIKE.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

In an effort to resurrect talks between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and striking unions, MTA officials asked the unions Wednesday to agree to bring in a federal mediator, submit detailed written demands and allow bus and rail drivers to return to work while talks continue.

``There are 500,000 people who are about to lose their jobs,'' MTA Board Chairwoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said, referring to commuters stranded during the walkout entering its 13th day today.

``There are people who can't get doctors and children who can't get to school. Let's keep negotiating, but bring the drivers back to work so the buses can run.''

A day after talks collapsed amid bitter and angry accusations, a union spokesman said the 4,300 bus and rail drivers represented by the United Transportation Union will not return to work until a new contract is signed, and the union prefers to resume talks with the state mediator and state fact-finder sent by Gov. Gray Davis and Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys. State Department of Industrial Relations Director Steve Smith and Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles, met with union officials until talks broke off Tuesday.

``We've never had a federal mediator on this property in the 41 years I've been associated with this union,'' said UTU spokesman Goldy Norton. ``We are hoping for Smith and Wesson to reinvolve themselves and see if they can jump-start the negotiations.''

Norton and Neil Silver, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents MTA mechanics and maintenance workers, said the only way to end the strike is for the governor to sign Senate Bill 1101, which would require proposed transit zones in the San Fernando Valley and other areas to abide by MTA contracts indefinitely. The bill would protect MTA workers' jobs, union leaders say.

``The bottom line is this is not about money; it's not about work rules. It's not about anything other than the desire of the mayor of Los Angeles and his friend Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky who have put the interest of creating a San Fernando Valley transit zone ahead of the needs of the bus-dependent public,'' Norton said.

Yaroslavsky is head of a panel overseeing plans for a transportation zone to take over operation of dozens of MTA bus lines in a nine-city Valley region. Zone supporters say Senate Bill 1101 would make a zone unfeasible.

Silver said MTA negotiators met with the mechanics' representatives Wednesday morning hoping their union would urge Davis to veto the bill, allowing the creation of the transit zones.

``We told them we want the governor to sign SB 1101,'' Silver said. ``It's obvious to me that the MTA is doing the bidding of special interests in the Valley.''

Yaroslavsky took issue with union officials' assertions that the walkout would end if Davis signs SB 1101.

``That notion is sheer fantasy,'' he said. ``The zones are one issue in these negotiations. Even if the zone issue was not on the table, you have the issues of wages, benefits, work rules and all the things we've been trying to get the unions to negotiate about.''

By law, the governor has until Saturday to veto the bill or sign it into law.

``If the governor signs the bill I guarantee it would have a major impact on the negotiations,'' Norton said. ``It might not immediately settle the strike, but it would remove the transit zone issue, and that is the biggest stumbling block. If the governor vetoes the bill, I think you will have a long strike.''

For the first time in the ongoing strike saga, MTA officials on Wednesday outlined the package of $43 million in increased wages and benefits they are offering MTA workers.

Burke said the MTA is offering 2.7 percent annual wage increases that total 8.1 percent over three years. Also, the MTA offered to pick up almost 2 percent of employees' contributions to their pension plans.

In return, the MTA sought to get $23 million in savings as a result of improved productivity and reductions in overtime through work-rule changes.

The MTA released figures Wednesday showing 2 percent of MTA drivers earn more than $80,000 a year, 6 percent make $70,001 to $80,000, 22 percent make $60,001 to $70,000, and 32 percent make $50,001 to $60,000.

CAPTION(S):

photo, chart

Photo:

Bus drivers picket the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus yard at Chatsworth on Wednesday, 12th day of the strike that has stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Chart: MTA DRIVER'S PAY

Gross pay of full-time MTA bus and train drivers per year

SOURCE: MTA

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