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Morning News

Transit Strike Inconveniences Thousands in Los Angeles

Aired September 18, 2000 - 9:01 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to begin this hour with a commuter headache for people in Los Angeles. Nearly half a million people who use mass transit face the start of the work week without bus or train service due to a transit strike. Routinely congested freeways could be even more jam-packed as transit workers look for alternative ways to get to work.

Our Greg LaMotte is monitoring the situation for Southern California and joins us live.

GREG LAMOTTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, there are a half million people anguishing over how to get to the grocery store, how to get to doctors appointments, how to get to school, and most certainly they are anguishing over how to get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAMOTTE (voice-over): Alan Bartholemew makes his living working in a Los Angeles deli. In a city where people are so dependent on their cars, Bartholemew doesn't own one. He depends on the bus. His worst fear? A transit strike.

ALAN BARTHOLEMEW, DELI WORKER: It would affect my work, going back and forth to work, and it would devastate me and my income.

LAMOTTE: Bartholemew, along with a half million other L.A. residents who depend on mass transit, is scrambling to figure out how to get to work. The city's 6,800 transit workers have gone on strike.

MAYOR RICHARD RIORDAN, LOS ANGELES: We want to work with the unions. We want to give them a reasonable increase in wages, but we want to get rid of the antiquated work rules that are like a cancer destroying our transportation system.

LAMOTTE: Bus and rail operators in Los Angeles make, on average, $50,000 a year. With overtime, some make as much as 80,000. The city is offering wage increases but wants to cut down on overtime pay, pay it says is crippling the city's ability to expand mass transportation. The union has said that is unacceptable. Three-quarters of all transit riders in Los Angeles don't have a car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's nothing I can do. What can I do? I can't get to work. I can't take my daughter to school. I can't make money. So that -- it affects me very, very much.

LAMOTTE: Over the past 30 years, transit workers here have gone on strike seven times. It should be noted only 3 percent of all trips during a typical day in L.A. are by public transportation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAMOTTE: Now, unlike New York, where just about everyone uses some form of public transportation, here in Los Angeles it's primarily used by the lower income. An extended strike could be devastating to those folks.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority says it has to reduce operating costs or face deficits. It is offering a 2.7 percent pay increase to the bus and rail operators. The unions have asked the MTA to cut back on its rail expansion plans and pay the bus and rail operators a 4 percent increase.

As it stands today, it is all about money, and the people in the middle are the people who need mass transportation the most: the elderly, those who depend on mass transportation for all of their transportation needs -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Greg, those strikers behind you certainly sound fired up. Any idea when everyone is going to sit down at the table and try to work this dispute out?

LAMOTTE: Well, when the talks resume depend on who you talk to in the first place. The Metropolitan Transit Authority says they are asking the unions to come back to the negotiating table. The unions are saying that's not true. There seems to be a lot of confusion about who wants who where and when, and trying to get these meetings set up.

In the meantime, the unions are saying what they want is a state negotiator to become involved in the negotiations.

KAGAN: Great LaMotte in Los Angeles, thank you very much.

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