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Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Oct. 10 presented United Transportation Union (UTU) its "best and final offer" and issued a 9 a.m. (PDT), Oct. 12, acceptance deadline in hopes of ending a 26-day transit strike.

"The strike has gone on too long," said Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in a prepared statement. "We must get bus and train service back on the street."

MTA officials claim the offer includes the highest wage and benefits package proposed to date.

"Many of the benefits offered in this contract are better than those offered in the last contract this membership ratified three years ago," said MTA Chair Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. "Yet, it also contains improvements in operations that will allow the MTA to enhance efficiency and productivity."

If UTU officials accept the offer, some service could be restored almost immediately. But if union leadership rejects the offer, MTA has a back-up plan.

"We will begin to contact union members ourselves and tell them what the details of the offer are," says MTA spokesman Ed Scannell.

Given that UTU represents 4,300 MTA bus and rail operators, such a venture could be considered ambitious. But no proposal details would be released until after rank-and-file members were informed.

Scannell declined to discuss any contingency plan should informing UTU members of proposed contract details also fail to end the strike. However, no one — including California Gov. Gray Davis — has the authority to order the operators back to work.

UTU officials could not be reached for comment.

— Kathi Kube

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