(The Associated Press distributed the following article on October 22.)
LOS ANGELES — Negotiators in the city’s transit strike stepped up talks Tuesday after management sweetened its offer to union mechanics who service most of the bus and rail lines in and around Los Angeles.
Communicating through a mediator, representatives of striking mechanics asked for more details on a new proposal by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to agency spokesman Ed Scannell.
The new offer included the MTA’s backing away from its demand to take over the union’s troubled health care fund. Also, the MTA proposed equal representation on the six-member board overseeing the nearly insolvent fund and agreed to make a one-time contribution of $4.7 million — an increase from a previous offer of $4 million.
The MTA’s monthly payments to the fund would be increased to $1.9 million from $1.4 million.
Workers had called on the MTA to boost its contribution to the health care fund to cover cost increases. The MTA countered that an independent auditor has determined the fund is mismanaged.
Representatives of the mechanics union did not return calls seeking comment.
The strike began Oct. 14, with 2,200 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union walking off the job. They are being supported by 6,000 bus and train operators who have refused to cross picket lines.
The transit system, the nation’s third-largest, serves 500,000 riders a day.