(The Associated Press distributed the following article on October 20.)
LOS ANGELES — Though there was no apparent progress in negotiations between striking mechanics and transportation officials, talks with train operators and bus drivers who walked off the job were gaining momentum, authorities said Sunday.
“Things are looking quite optimistic with the drivers,” said Bill Heard, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “We are at the table, face to face, and things are quite cordial.”
It was unclear when the two sides could reach an agreement, he said.
About 2,200 MTA mechanics went on strike Tuesday after contract negotiations collapsed over the cost of health care coverage. Nearly 6,000 MTA drivers and train operators then walked off the job in solidarity.
The MTA and the mechanics union met separately Saturday with a state mediator at a hotel in Pomona, but made little progress, Heard said. Negotiations between MTA representatives and the United Transportation Union, the union for MTA bus and rail operators, resumed Sunday morning.
Calls to Neil Silver, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, were not immediately returned Sunday.
The MTA labor protests have clogged freeways and forced about half a million commuters to scramble for alternate transportation. The strike, coupled with a grocery workers strike and lock out, has weakened Southern California’s already troubled economy.
“There’ not transportation so we can’t get to work on time, but there’s no one to buy either,” said Jose Martinez, 60, who sells toys from a cart in Los Angeles’ garment district.
He typically brings in $40 a day. But with fewer shoppers on Sunday, he said he could make as little as $25.
“This is how we make our living,” he said. “The strike is hurting us.”
The region’s economy has also been hurt by the ongoing dispute between grocery clerks and three major supermarket chains.
A total of 70,000 grocery clerks from three companies – Kroger Co.’s Ralphs, Safeway Inc.’s Vons and Albertsons Inc. – went on strike or were locked out Oct. 11 in Southern and Central California.
Terry O’Neil, spokesman for Ralphs, said no new negotiations were scheduled.
“The strikes go on until the union makes a decision to come back to the table and enter into meaningful discussions about the issues,” O’Neil said.
The supermarket chains tried to sway public opinion with a full-page ad in Southern California newspapers Sunday that described their contract offers as “more than fair.”