Strike hits students, employees

Four nights at Motel 6: $232.92.

Greyhound tickets between Los Angeles and Long Beach: $15.

Taxi service: $20 each way.

Wrath the Metropolitan Transportation Authority faces for going on strike: priceless.

MTA bus drivers, maintenance workers and clerks went on strike last Saturday after negotiations failed between the transit agency's management and the unions that represent the workers.

As a result, nearly half a million riders have no public transportation service, forcing them to rely on car-owning friends, taxicabs or bicycles to get around.

Normally, I rely on public transit for my 29-mile commute from Los Angeles to Cal State Long Beach, as well as for trips near my home. The service is so frequent and inexpensive that I prefer taking buses and trains over driving.

However, this recent strike left me in a jam. I have to get to school and work in Long Beach, but I do not own a car and cannot find a carpool. Just because the buses and trains stop running doesn't mean my responsibilities can wait until the strike is over.

I have to pay about $250 a week to stay in Long Beach, mainly to stay at the Motel 6 near campus. I take Greyhound Monday morning and return to Los Angeles Friday night.

The MTA strike is costing me a lot of money, but I can afford it. However, I cannot say the same for many of my fellow passengers.

According to MTA statistics, two-thirds of the riders make less than $15,000 a year. A hotel is out of the question for them. Often, a $42 monthly pass means choosing between transportation and food for some.

Without MTA service, the pittance these low-income workers earn will easily become nothing.

Meanwhile, the MTA management and negotiators from the United Transportation Union, Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transportation Clerks Union are trying to hammer out a contract in a Pasadena hotel, with little progress.

The issues are over pay raises and work rules. A raise will definitely be given, but the main sticking point is with MTA modifying overtime rules for drivers to work 10 hours a day, four days a week, but with a big stretch of time unpaid.

The change affects about 400 drivers, but if just one of the MTA's unions go on strike, the others must strike as well. The County Federation of Labor has also ordered MTA's contract operators to strike, shutting down all service.

The MTA claims it must cut costs in order to avoid an operating deficit in 10 years, but where does the agency get off demanding to save money?

Since its creation in 1993, the MTA has brought us a subway that cost $250 million per mile to build, a palatial $500 million Taj Mahal like headquarters downtown, mismanagement and corruption. Suddenly, trying to be honest doesn't wash, especially when the MTA picks a fight it will not win.

The unions are equally at fault in this. Drivers and other front-line workers have very difficult jobs to face, but they are compensated handsomely. According to news reports, drivers earn $50,000 a year plus $20,000 in overtime and excellent benefits. The MTA has blue-collar work that rivals the pay of white-collar firms.

Once the strike is over, the front-liners will have jobs to go back to. The riders would be lucky if they had the same.

If anybody hurt by the strike wants to get back at the MTA, simply buying a car and abandoning public transit is not enough. Since passengers do not pay the full cost of their ride, the MTA could lose riders and operate as normal. The MTA thrives on subsidies, not fares.

To truly retaliate, repeal Propositions A and C, the sales taxes that fund MTA. The taxes are collected on every purchase throughout L.A. County, and once that is gone, the MTA and the unions will truly get what's coming to them.

Chris Ledermuller  is a print journalism major at Cal State Long Beach.