MTA Puts New Offer on Table

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority presented a new contract offer to striking mechanics Sunday night, marking the agency’s first formal overture to the union after nearly a week of limited negotiations.

But union officials sharply criticized the proposal, which they called an insult. The labor dispute is entering its second week with both sides appearing to be no closer to reaching an agreement.

The work stoppage, which began Tuesday, has shut down bus and train service in the nation’s third-largest transit system, and has left thousands of commuters scrambling to find alternative transportation.

MTA officials expressed hope that a deal is near, and said the offer is a fair response to mechanics’ concerns over who should pay for union members’ rising health insurance costs.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who serves as chairman of the MTA board, provided no details about the proposal. He strongly urged union officials to consider it.

“I suggest they read it very carefully,� Yaroslavsky said at the Sheraton Suites Fairplex in Pomona, where the negotiations continued late into the night Sunday.

After reviewing the proposal, Neil Silver, the mechanics union leader, said it offered less money for health benefits than the MTA’s last offer made before the strike began. He said the proposal was the first communication from the MTA since the strike started.

“This is a tragedy. It’s a freakin’ insult,� said Silver, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1277.

The local represents about 2,200 MTA mechanics and retirees. MTA drivers, supervisors and clerks all honored the walkout, which has shut down buses, the subway and light-rail lines that serve 400,000 people.

During the strike, there has been little face-to-face negotiation between the two sides, and MTA officials have focused more attention on reaching a new contract deal with the agency’s bus drivers union. That union is not on strike, but has been working without a contract since June.

The MTA’s decision to devote more negotiating time to the drivers union has irked Silver and other union officials, who spent much of Sunday in a conference room waiting for MTA officials to finish their talks with the drivers union.

“My people are out, they are hurting. The people who ride transit in this county are hurting, and the MTA is playing around with a union that is not even the one striking,� Silver said as he paced the hotel’s hallways.

Yaroslavsky, who hoped that a deal with mechanics could be reached this weekend, was disappointed with the pace of the talks. “The sense of urgency that this has called for has fallen a little bit short,� he said in a statement directed at drivers and mechanics.

Yaroslavsky said the MTA had focused its efforts on the drivers union negotiations because the two sides were closer to reaching an agreement. Both sides were still negotiating after the MTA’s last offer was made Saturday.

A deal with the drivers union could put pressure on the mechanics to reach an agreement, in part, because it is uncertain how long rank-and-file drivers will honor the mechanics’ picket lines. The drivers union continues to say that it will march in lock-step with its union brethren.

The MTA also could use the deal with the drivers as a bargaining chip, telling the mechanics that it can’t sign a deal with them that is much different.