> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # With MTA strike resolved, officials move down the road - URL: https://www.smdp.com/with-mta-strike-resolved-officials-move-down-the-road/ - Published: 2003-11-20T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T03:15:27.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import *‘Culture of striking’must end, SM official says* Los Angeles buses and trains are picking up riders again, but everything is far from settled in the ongoing controversy surrounding drivers, mechanics and their employers. Santa Monica City Councilwoman Pam O’Connor, who serves on the 13-member board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, said Wednesday that something needs to be done to keep workers from striking again the next time contracts are on the negotiating table. “Clearly there’s a culture of striking and I think that needs to be changed,” she said, adding that the MTA will set up a sub-committee to analyze the issue. “Whether it’s through laws or what — I don’t think people who provide public services... should go on strike every three years.” The five-week strike over wages and benefits for MTA workers ended Monday, when labor and management groups agreed to send the matter to arbitrators. Mechanics voted 1,159 to 191 Wednesday morning to accept the compromise drafted by arbitrators. The new contract will last three years and nine months. MTA spokesman Dave Sotero said the bus lines were back to 100 percent Wednesday evening and train service will be fully restored sometime next week. All told, the MTA serves 400,000-plus riders each day. The MTA has had 10 strikes since 1960\. The latest strike lasted 35 days, which was the second longest, Sotero said. Some have been as short as eight days — the longest was 68 days. “It would be politically impalpable to have another strike at the end of this,” Sotero added, saying that he expects MTA buses and trains to run on schedule for the foreseeable future. Having served on the MTA board only a little more than two years, O’Connor wasn’t at the helm during any of the previous MTA strikes. But that didn’t dampen her resolve to settle the dispute. O’Connor said she participated in each of the board’s emergency meetings, which were held two to three times every week. While disputes over pay and benefits may be unavoidable, O’Connor said a better way of dealing with them needs to be established. 41A,“We’ve got to find a process and a way that doesn’t disrupt service,” she said. “When service is disrupted... you get drop-offs of ridership because people find other ways of getting around. That doesn’t help anybody because it adds congestion on the road.” She added that a strike should be used only as a last-ditch effort, when every other avenue for resolution has failed. “I don’t think it was a final last step this time,” O’Connor said. “It happened too soon.” But where O’Connor sees a problem in workers being too quick to strike, others see a problem in communication. Kent Wong, director of the UCLA center for labor research and education, said the strike was prolonged because both parties dug in their heels at the beginning and refused to budge. “I don’t necessarily see this as a culture of striking,” Wong said. “I see this as a breakdown in the trust and communication between management and the union. There was just so much hostile exchange of positions that were very publicly disseminated that made both sides less flexible.” In order to circumvent the problem in the future, Wong said the MTA could implement a number of changes. It could start the negotiating process earlier, it could develop an approach to identify common interests — instead of positions — and it could find ways to strengthen communication, trust and understanding between the two sides, he said. “Unfortunately what had happened is you have both sides being highly critical, very publicly,” Wong said. “And feeling very strong about the convictions of their side and airing that very publicly — which makes (them) feel good but doesn’t really move the process forward,” he said. “(It is) completely appropriate to begin a conversation about, ‘How might we work together to improve the collective bargaining process for the future?’” Dan Dawson, spokesman for Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus line, which serves 80,000 people each day and hasn’t had a strike since 1968, said his company could serve as a role model for open communication. “We make a really conscious and great effort to make sure that we have lots of internal communication with our employees,” he said. Kent Wong *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 20, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112003.pdf?ref=smdp.com)