Talks in Transit Strike Resume; Officials Wary : Labor: Sharp differences between mechanics, MTA may prolong walkout. Congestion on freeways worsens.

Striking mechanics and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority resumed talks Tuesday evening as Los Angeles County commuters slowly made their way through town on the second day of a transit walkout that seemed destined to drag on for several more days.

Congestion worsened on the freeways as more commuters abandoned any hope of hailing a bus and flocked to cars. With less than 20% of MTA buses on the road, the small number of riders who braved the buses found tight seating, long delays--and in some cases no bus at all, due to foul-ups in scheduling.

While leaders of the mechanics union and MTA negotiators agreed to meet, officials were cautious about prospects for a quick settlement, aware of sharp differences between management and labor.

“We hope we can make some progress,” said County Supervisor Ed Edelman, MTA board chairman. “We are still far apart.”

About 1,900 mechanics walked off the job Sunday morning after they were unable to reach agreement on a new contract. About 5,000 bus and train drivers and clerks, whose unions had reached last-minute tentative agreements Sunday, walked out in support, crippling a system that serves more than 500,000 riders a day.

On Day 2 of Los Angeles’ first bus strike in 12 years:

* Traffic on surface streets remained at its usual levels, but congestion increased on Los Angeles area freeways. The average commute was increased by about 15 minutes and rush hour lasted about 30 minutes longer than usual, Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli said. Metrolink commuter trains carried an estimated 20% more passengers, but ridership on the Blue Line trolley and the Red Line subway decreased.

* Only 318 buses out of the normal 1,900 were in service. The MTA said it was providing service on its 30 busiest routes, but failed to tell riders that in many cases the buses were serving only portions of the line, leaving some would-be passengers stranded. The busiest lines were the No. 21, which runs along Wilshire Boulevard, and the No. 30/31 on Pico Boulevard, MTA spokeswoman Andrea Greene said. The agency has no plans to reshape its deployment of buses during the strike this week.

* MTA officials planned to launch a new commuter phone service because a transit hot line was unable to handle the flood of calls. Of an estimated 15,000 calls received Monday by (800) COMMUTE, only 6,000 were answered, Greene said. The rest of the callers hung up after being put on hold for extended periods of time, and the hot line went out of service for 45 minutes Monday. The new phone service, scheduled to begin later this week, will provide recorded information.

* MTA supervisors drove 130 of the 318 buses on the road Tuesday. They had taken a refresher course in the weeks before the strike. The rest of the fleet was composed of private school buses, contracted by the MTA. Negotiations are under way with private companies to expand bus service should the strike extend beyond this week. The agency has received more than 1,700 applications in response to advertisements placed three weeks ago for temporary strike-related jobs. In two weeks, the agency expects to put 50 more drivers on the street if the strike persists.

* Transit officials tripled security patrols of the buses and bus stops after an attempted hijacking of a bus by three irate strikers was thwarted on Monday. In the only reported act of vandalism, a non-striking driver suffered a minor injury when a rock shattered his windshield.

* In the public relations war, the MTA resumed newspaper and radio ads accusing the mechanics of holding the city hostage, but said it would suspend the ads once negotiations began. The ad campaign so far has cost taxpayers $198,632.

The Politics of the Strike

Tuesday night’s negotiating session--the first since talks broke down Sunday--was set up by a phone call from Jim Wood, secretary-treasurer of the County Federation of Labor, to Edelman, a longtime ally of labor. It was attended by a state mediator.

In the delicate negotiations between the transit agency and the unions, the path to a settlement is obstructed by layers of politics on both sides.

The key issue in the dispute--even among the MTA’s own board members--is the subcontracting of work now performed by union mechanics to non-union private companies that pay lower wages.

The controversy stems from differing philosophies: Promoted at the national level by then-President Ronald Reagan, “contracting out” of government services is a longtime Republican cost-cutting staple that has also gained support from budget-conscious Democrats.

Union leaders, on the other hand, see contracting as a threat to their survival; they contend that it lowers the number of higher-paying union jobs, threatens their members’ job security and depresses wages for all workers. In the auto industry, for example, a key contract stumbling block in recent years has been demands by the nation’s major auto makers to buy many car parts from cheaper, non-union suppliers.

Contracting has been a hot political issue in transportation in Los Angeles since 1988, when the now-defunct Los Angeles County Transportation Commission turned over bus lines previously operated by the old Southern California Rapid Transit District to Foothill Transit. Foothill, which pays far lower wages to its drivers, has asked the MTA to let it take over another 12 lines now operated by MTA, promising $10 million in savings.

The push for contracting gained momentum with the election of Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican who has championed privatization, to replace Tom Bradley, a pro-union Democrat. Riordan is a member of the MTA board and appoints three other members.

Even Edelman and Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, both Democrats, said that contracting must be considered in the current economic climate.

“If we can provide better quality service and less costly service, and not jeopardize any jobs and it’s served the public’s interest, why should we be precluded from considering (contracting)?” Yaroslavsky said.

Wood of the County Federation of Labor called efforts by MTA board members to contract out work “an excuse to attempt to move work out of the public sector and move it to their friends in the private sector.”

So entrenched is the dispute that both sides have argued their point with a common symbol: the dustpan.

In citing the cost savings of contracting, transit officials have repeatedly said it only costs $9 at a neighborhood store to buy a dustpan that costs the union mechanics $25 to build.

Wood answers: “We can show you dustpans we made 30 years ago that are still in service. This is the kind of disinformation that management puts out to try to belittle what we do.” He said the cheaper dustpans may have been made abroad by workers paid sub-minimum wage.

Mike Bujosa, president of the local chapter of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing 1,900 mechanics whose top hourly wage is $20.83, called subcontracting the major issue separating the union and the transit agency.

“That’s where we are miles apart,” he said.

However, there are several other issues that may be hardening Bujosa’s position, insiders say.

One occurred July 16 when, with negotiations under way, the MTA laid off 83 mechanics--a fact that has caused union members to question the MTA’s pledge that no mechanics will lose jobs because of subcontracting.

MTA officials justified the timing of the layoffs by saying they are under fire and face a $300-million shortfall as a result of a recession-triggered decline in sales tax revenue. The layoffs of union and non-union employees had “nothing to do with labor negotiations; it had to do with cost reduction,” MTA spokeswoman Greene said.

However, one source close to the negotiations said the layoff of mechanics was the primary reason the strike occurred. “That really was the dynamic that put them in the position where they almost literally couldn’t justify doing otherwise,” the source said.

Bujosa, chapter president for the last three years, will be up for reelection this November, and needed to take a tough stand in response to the layoffs in order to win another term, some sources say.

Bujosa disagreed.

“It’s good to come up with a good contract, let’s face it. But even if I’m not elected, I want to come back to a good job,” he said.

On the Street

With varying degrees of success, MTA officials tried to diminish the snafus Tuesday from their makeshift bus operations.

But glitches abounded.

Many passengers unaware of the new strike fare of 50 cents on MTA buses, deposited the customary $1.10. On the No. 21 Wilshire Boulevard line, four buses converged at one bus stop during the morning rush hour.

Elsewhere the problem was the dearth of buses.

The No. 16 line that normally links Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 3rd Street and San Vicente Boulevard near Beverly Hills with Downtown was supposed to be up and running on Tuesday.

In fact, service on the line was limited to the one-third of the route nearest to Downtown.

Luisa Abeniante was one of the unlucky eastbound riders counting on a ride from a stop near the beginning of the usual route. A co-worker at the Medical Center of North Hollywood, where she is a nurse’s assistant, had dropped her off at the 3rd Street and La Cienega Boulevard stop at 8 a.m. after she had worked all night and was trying to get to her home near Downtown.

After an hour, with no bus in sight, she began to get frustrated.

“By this time I’m already home and I could do some things and sleep a little bit more,” she said. The ride to work had taken her three hours and had made it a long day. She ended up walking until she found a bus.

Aboard another Line 16 bus later in the morning, a light crowd of riders were politely thanking the substitute driver, admiring the cleanliness of the bus and appreciating the MTA’s no-fare policy on the school buses.

At 5th and Main streets, a group of picketers yelled, “Scab! Scab! Scab!” at the driver as he passed. A few blocks later, a picketer yelled, “Don’t take that bus! Get off it or you’re going to get killed!”

Later, the driver, who declined to give his name, said the picketers bothered him and made him fearful. But, he said, the aggravation is only temporary.

Across the city, others found ways to cope with the strike.

Officials at EZ Sportswear, a Chatsworth garment manufacturer, started worrying about the bus strike last week. About one-third of the company’s 225 employees ride the bus.

“We had to figure out how to get people to work,” said Terry Miller, director of human resources. “So we arranged for employees with cars to bring the other people. We had people late, but we haven’t had any absences.”

At Handy J Carwash in Sherman Oaks, owner Joel Gassman said the strike cut his work force by more than half on Monday, with 14 workers absent from a crew of 24.

“It’s making things very difficult,” he said.

At the McDonald’s at Crenshaw Avenue and 71st Street, one-fifth of the work crew has been missing for the past two days.

Owner Andrea Bailey hurried past. How was the strike affecting business? She threw up her hands. “Horrible! Horrible!” she said, rushing behind the counter.

Times staff writers Richard Lee Colvin, Nicholas Riccardi and Sam Enriquez contributed to this story.

The MTA Strike: Day 2

The region’s first transit strike in 12 years began at 12:01 a.m. Monday. Here is a look at Day 2:

* THE ISSUE: Dispute between the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing 1,900 mechanics and service attendants, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. About 5,000 bus and train drivers and clerks are honoring picket lines. The major sticking point is the MTA’s demand to contract out work. Union members say they believe that it will eliminate jobs and result in poorer quality work.

* THE STATUS: Negotiations resumed Tuesday night.

* WHAT’S OPERATING: About 300 buses on portions of the 30 busiest routes, out of the usual 1,900 buses on 200 routes. Some routes will use school buses, operated by private drivers, identified by “M” logos in the front and back. Service is continuing on the Red Line, Amtrak, Metrolink commuter rail and municipal/private operators such as Foothill Transit, L.A. tcity commuter express and DASH. The Blue Line is offering limited service.

* THE ROUTES:

The MTA is offering regular service on these routes:

204 Vermont Ave., 240 Reseda Blvd.; 424 Ventura Blvd.-L.A.; and 442 Hawthorne-Manchester-Express and on the Red Line.

Portions of the following routes are being served:

1/217 Hollywood Blvd.-Fairfax Ave.; 16 West 3rd St.; 18 E. Whittier Blvd.-West 6th St.; 21 Wilshire Blvd.; 30 Pico Blvd.-East 1st St.; 33 Venice Blvd.; 45 Broadway; 76 Valley Blvd.; 81 Figueroa St.; 92 Glenoaks Blvd.-Brand Blvd.; 105 Vernon Ave.; 108 Slauson Ave.; 115 Manchester Blvd.-Firestone Blvd.; 117 Century Blvd.; 125 Rosecrans Ave.; 152 Roscoe Blvd.; 163 Sherman Way; 180 Hollywood-Glendale-Pasadena; 207 Western Ave.; 210 Crenshaw Blvd.; 212 La Brea-S.F. Valley; 251 Soto St.; 260 Atlantic Ave.; 420 San Vernando Valley-Hollywood-L.A.; 470 Whittier-Montebello-L.A.; 560 Van Nuys Blvd.-Westwood.

The Blue Line route runs between Willow station in Long Beach and 7th/Metro station only.

* HOURS: Bus and train service is from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays only.

* FARES: 50 cents on MTA buses and Blue Line, with no transfers. Elderly and the disabled pay 25 cents. No fee on the emergency school buses.

* FOR MORE INFORMATION: (800) COMMUTE or (800) 371-LINK (for Metrolink information.) A new line for recorded information will be added later this week.