State Mediator Enters Bus Strike Talks : Negotiators Meet Separately With Peacemaker at Secret Location

Under the same roof but in different rooms, negotiators for the Orange County Transit District and the bus drivers’ union met Friday for the first time with a state mediator assigned to help resolve the six-day strike.

Each side met separately at an undisclosed location in Orange County with Douglas Thompson, who works out of the Los Angeles office of the State Mediation and Conciliation Service, according to officials for both the district and the United Transportation Union Local 19.

There was no face-to-face meeting between the two sides; instead, Thompson walked back and forth between two rooms.

Joanne Curran, spokeswoman for the OCTD, said there would be no announcement of when the next meeting would take place. She said the two sides probably would not meet over the weekend.

Restating of Final Offer

She added that the district still maintains that its final offer is the best it can do.

“The meetings are centering around the district restating their final offer through the mediator,” she said. “The district is hoping some clarifications may be of assistance.”

Juliene Smith, general chairman of the union, was unavailable for comment after the meetings. But earlier she said that it probably would take several meetings with the state mediator before a settlement could be reached.

She added that the union plans to run advertisements Sunday in local newspapers to state the bus drivers’ position. The union’s 730 bus drivers walked off the job last Monday after overwhelmingly rejecting the district’s last offer.

The district has offered a 7.5% pay increase over the next 3 1/2 years. The union prefers 10% over three years. However, both sides concede that the major issues are drug testing, absenteeism, elimination of cost-of-living allowances and the use of part-time drivers.

The union will agree to drug testing but wants the drivers to have the option of choosing a private clinic for the screening, while OCTD demands that all testing be conducting at its own facility.

Cites Economic Climate

Jim Reichert, OCTD general manager, said the current economic climate calls for the elimination of cost-of-living allowances and for more part-time drivers. The OCTD, however, has guaranteed that no union drivers will be eliminated to reach the 20% goal for part-time drivers.

“This is a contract that is a fair and reasonable offer,” Reichert said. “Around the country, reductions in federal funding have increased the need for cost controls and the effective management of our systems.”

Before Friday’s sessions, the two sides had not negotiated since Dec. 4, when talks stalled. The union rejected the district’s contract offer last Sunday night, only 30 minutes before the bus drivers began the strike.

Despite the walkout, the district managed for the first four days to run 55 buses on 12 of its regular routes with management personnel and driver trainees. Curran said another three drivers crossed the picket line Friday morning, allowing the district to add a 13th route. She said that so far eight union drivers have returned to work.

The same 13 routes, which have been carrying about 22,000 passengers daily, will be run today, but there will be no service on Sunday, Curran said.