United Transportation Union

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its drivers union tentatively agreed Thursday to a three-year labor contract, officials said. The MTA board and members of the United Transportation Union must OK the pact.

Train crash: A report in Sunday's Section A about an engineer involved in the Chatsworth Metrolink crash said the United Transportation Union did not represent Metrolink employees. The union represents its conductors, according to union spokesman Frank N. Wilner. Also, the article said Metrolink's dispatch center is in Pacoima; it's in Pomona.

Train crash: A report in Sunday's Section A about an engineer involved in the Chatsworth Metrolink crash said the United Transportation Union did not represent Metrolink employees. The union represents its conductors, according to union spokesman Frank N. Wilner. Also, the article said Metrolink's dispatch center is in Pacoima; it's in Pomona.

Bus drivers on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a labor contract with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority that gives them a 10.5% pay raise over the next three years. "This represents the best labor contract that we've had since the '80s," said James A. Williams, general chairman of the United Transportation Union, which represents 4,800 bus drivers. Under the deal, the top hourly rate for those hired before July 1, 1997, goes up to $24.30, effective immediately.

Southern California Rapid Transit District bus drivers voted 4,214 to 391 to authorize the sixth strike against the district in 15 years. The United Transportation Union is asking for pay raises of 4% this year and another 4% next year, while management has demanded a pay freeze and some "give-backs," such as the elimination of the union's cost-of-living contract clause. Full-time drivers now earn $12.72 an hour. Gov.

Railroad Union Agrees to Smaller Crews: Burlington Northern Railroad, operator of the nation's largest rail system, and the United Transportation Union have signed an agreement to reduce train crew sizes. The company said the deal, which covers 5,100 union members, will allow it to be much more competitive in markets where it competes directly with trucks. Unionized crew sizes on the 16,400 miles of its system now covered by the agreement include a conductor and either one or two brakemen.

Top officers of Conrail--the government-owned freight railroad whose employees made three years of wage concessions to help keep the line operating--have been quietly awarded salary increases ranging from 7% to 21%. Many of the officers had earned $115,000 or more. From April, 1981, through June, 1984, Conrail's unionized employees agreed to forgo some salary increases to help their employer keep rates down.

Daylong talks between the Southern California Rapid Transit District and neeotiators for 5,000 bus drivers ended with both sides apparently still far apart in their attempt to reach a contract settlement. "We feel that they didn't make a good-faith effort to meet us halfway," RTD spokesman Marc Littman said after the United Transportation Union presented its latest proposal in response to a disappointing new management offer.

A judge has ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its mechanics union to continue their cooling-off period for labor negotiations. The ruling Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs prohibits the 2,000 employees represented by the Amalgamated Transportation Union from going on strike and the MTA from locking workers out until after Oct. 12, an agency spokesman said.

In a decision sending bus drivers across Los Angeles County scrambling to buckle up, an arbitrator has decreed that they must wear seat belts while on the job, officials said Wednesday. The ruling, reached after months of meetings between the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the United Transportation Union, applies to thousands of local bus drivers and settles what had been a hotly disputed area of the law.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its drivers union tentatively agreed Thursday to a three-year labor contract, officials said. The MTA board and members of the United Transportation Union must OK the pact.

A judge has ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its mechanics union to continue their cooling-off period for labor negotiations. The ruling Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs prohibits the 2,000 employees represented by the Amalgamated Transportation Union from going on strike and the MTA from locking workers out until after Oct. 12, an agency spokesman said.

Hoping to avert a strike, the state attorney general's office is expected to seek a court order today extending labor talks between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its mechanics union. A state lawyer will petition a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to order a 60-day cooling-off period during which the union could not strike and the agency could not lock out its workers. Such petitions are generally granted, observers say.

Gov. Gray Davis called for a 60-day cooling-off period Thursday in the talks between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the union representing bus and train drivers. Davis asked Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer to seek a court order preventing the United Transportation Union from striking or the MTA from locking out its bus and train workers as the two sides negotiate a labor contract.

Miguel Contreras has his hands around the neck of the mayor, whose eyes are wide with mock terror. In the next frame, Mayor Richard Riordan is wringing Contreras' neck, while the leader of the County Federation of Labor feigns a gasping last breath. Shot two years ago and fondly displayed in Contreras' office, the photos took on new meaning in the tense days that led to Tuesday's settlement of the bus drivers' strike.

Orange County Transit District bus drivers have replaced their local bargaining representatives with a Long Beach-based local of the Teamsters Union, labor representatives said Monday. United Transportation Union Local 19 was replaced by Teamsters Local 911, according to results of an election held Friday. The final vote was a narrow victory for the Teamsters, with 354 drivers voting to replace United and 346 voting to retain United, officials said.

Movement toward an end to the month-old transit strike stalled Sunday as persistent differences between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and striking bus and train operators blocked progress toward settlement of the protracted dispute. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, acting as a mediator between the two sides, said the talks had hit another roadblock. "We've hit a certain impasse on the part-time workers . . . issue," he said. "We're in this dead zone. . . .

Leaders of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority took their case directly to striking bus and rail operators Thursday after union leaders rejected a proposed contract that included a sweetened three-year, 10% pay hike for full-time drivers.