Michael Schwartz  Schwartz is a
fifth-year sociology
student who can be reached at [email protected].
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At 12:01 a.m. on Saturday Sept. 16, workers from the United
Transportation Union walked off their jobs in Los Angeles when
negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority failed
to produce a fair contract. Workers immediately set up 24-hour
picket lines across the county. This is the seventh time in the
last 30 years that MTA workers have been forced to go on strike in
order to defend their standard of living.
The UTU represents 4,400 bus drivers and rail operators who
provide daily service to 450,000 passengers. Clerks and mechanics
who work for the MTA are also honoring the picket line. Some
surrounding cities are still operating their own bus lines,
unaffected by the strike, but the strike has halted virtually all
public transportation in the county. Make no mistake about it, the
MTA bears the sole responsibility for this strike.
Our support should be with these drivers who are who are on
strike to fight for their livelihood. The MTA wants more work to be
done for less pay. Right now drivers are working 10-hour shifts
with two hours paid overtime. The MTA has put forward a plan, which
calls for its employees to work 13 hours a day, four days a week,
but with absolutely no overtime pay.
The drivers would be paid regular wages for 10 hours each day
and the other three hours would count as unpaid breaks or
preparation time. The union estimates that this new pay system
would cut average earnings by 15 percent. The MTA also wants to
replace full-time drivers with a part-time work force to further
reduce costs.
 Illustration by RODERICK ROXAS/Daily Bruin With a debt
that will total $7 billion over the next 30 years, the MTA is
trying to portray itself as a helpless agency that desperately
needs to cut costs. Tim Weldo, the MTA’s chief negotiator,
said the transit agency needs $23 million in savings for rail and
bus operations over the next three years, and they need the
concessions from the union. Their plan is to get every penny from
cutting “labor costs.”
Mayor Richard Riordan, also chair of the MTA board, said,
“We want to get rid of the antiquated work rules that, like a
cancer, are destroying our transit system.” The
“concessions” and “compromises” they are
seeking would be devastating to these workers.
What the MTA doesn’t tell the public is that their debt is
a result of the billions of dollars it has wasted on light rail
projects that only serve a minority of its riders. The MTA has
spent billions on the subway and left their buses to fall apart.
The MTA was found guilty in a federal civil rights lawsuit for this
policy and was ordered by the judge to reduce overcrowding and
improve bus services. The MTA sees only two solutions for their
problem: either cut costs by forcing workers to make concessions or
raise fares on the people who rely on their service (Los Angeles
Times, Sept. 19). The MTA has left out important facts when crying
their tale of poverty to the public; they don’t talk about
the money they spent on their headquarters.
The MTA spent almost half a billion dollars on their brand-new
building downtown. The 26-story office has a glass-domed ceiling
with English brick and Italian granite. Waterfalls, aquariums and
murals decorate it along with hand-made Latin-themed grilles. (L.A.
Times, Sept. 17). If the MTA wanted to cut costs, why did they
spend half a billion dollars on this building? Why do they continue
to fund costly subway projects that only make wealthy contractors
even richer? Instead of saving the $23 million in areas where they
could, they have unleashed a ruthless attack on their unionized bus
drivers.
These drivers are portrayed as extremely well off financially,
in order to make them appear selfish, especially in contrast with
the low-income riders.
The MTA says that drivers make an average of $50,000 a year and
an additional $20,000 in overtime. Mayor Riordan said that some MTA
workers make up to $80,000 a year. This is a gross distortion of
the truth. According to an article in the L.A. Times on Sept. 21,
entry-level drivers are only making $8 an hour. The average worker
would need to work 56.5 hours a week to make $50,000 a year, and
only 3 percent of drivers make over $75,000 a year.
Drivers I spoke with said they couldn’t make $50,000 even
if they worked every day of the year.
An attempt has been made by the MTA and the media to pit the bus
drivers and the bus riders against each other. Drivers are also
shown as uncompassionate people who do not care about the
“poor, minority riders.”
Stories run in the L.A. Times about kids not being able to go to
school, people missing doctors appointments, and people walking
hours upon hours to get to work. But, rather than blame the MTA,
these stories put the blame on the drivers.
But the riders are not falling for this game. They know exactly
who is to blame for the strike. As a former public transportation
commuter I am well aware of what the drivers and riders face daily.
Drivers are given schedules that are impossible to meet, and we
have to ride in buses that are completely unreliable. I missed two
midterms because my bus broke down and it took five hours a day to
commute from Long Beach to school. Meanwhile the MTA lets their
buses collapse while lavish new light rail projects that serve
wealthy commuters are given billions of dollars.
Members of the Bus Riders Union have expressed their solidarity
with the bus drivers, saying things like, “The MTA is being
greedy and selfish,” and “the MTA, they got all the
money and they don’t want to cough up nothing.” One
person said, “Everyone knows they need better wages, the
companies are always offering less than what the workers really
need.” Other riders I spoke with expressed sympathy with the
drivers saying that if they were in the drivers’ shoes,
they’d be on strike also.
The 3,000-member Bus Riders Union, which also has 50,000
supporters are behind the bus drivers in their struggle. They know
that the MTA claiming to care about poor bus riders is a joke. MTA
buses are in terrible conditions, and workers I spoke with told me
that many buses are unsafe.
Service cuts are a regularity, and buses are horribly
overcrowded. A member of the MTA board stated that “if the
MTA fails to achieve the savings it needs from the drivers union,
it will mean a 20 percent increase in the basic bus and rail
fair.” So much for their consideration of the “poor bus
riders.”
The drivers are ready for a long strike. They know that this
fight is about their livelihood and are resisting giving into the
MTA’s demands.
The MTA’s budget problems should not be balanced on the
backs of the bus drivers or the bus riders. They should look at
their $500 million headquarters as an example of how they could
have prevented their $23 million deficit. Public transportation
should be an accessible right for everyone, not a privilege. MTA
workers deserve fair wages, fair benefits, decent hours and safe
working conditions. If you want to help the workers in their fight,
call the UTU local headquarters at (626) 962-9980.