"We got less than what we should have gotten, but better than what they wanted to give us," said Brian Crockett, a bus operator for 12 years, expressing his opinion of the contract settlement following the union meeting. "It was worth striking for."

"The MTA tried to take $23 million off our backs," said driver Michele Bryant. "I'm especially glad about article 2," he said, referring to the clause providing for straight 10-hour days instead of the demand for 12- or 13-hour availability for 10 hours pay, as originally proposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). "I think we got what we wanted and the fight is over. I'm behind on my bills, but I'm happy."

While full details of the settlement have not been made public, the summary outlined by union officials included the stipulation that any additional bus lines contracted out by the MTA to private companies would have to honor the current union contract. The settlement referred to the language outlined in State Senate Bill 1101, which became a law in California when Gov. Gray Davis signed it September 30 in the midst of the bus drivers' strike.

The settlement provides for 55 additional assignments of drivers to work schedules of four days, 10 hours, with three days off a week. This replaces the MTA's initial proposal of 400 additional assignments demanding four-day workweeks and requiring drivers to be on duty for more hours than they would be paid for.

Drivers on regular schedules (not those on the four-day, 10-hour schedule) will continue to receive overtime pay for time worked beyond eight hours, something the MTA sought to undermine.

The new contract provides for 330 part-time drivers to be hired by the MTA over the course of the three-year contract. Union officials noted this was a concession. "My main concern was the part-timers," said driver Robert Gonzalez. "If the MTA had gotten what they wanted on that, it would have given them the upper hand. They started out wanting to make 1,400 of our jobs part-time, so this was better than that. This contract saved jobs that some of the political people in the city of Los Angeles wanted to take away from us."

The new contract also maintains the current health benefits plan of the union and provides for an increase in the MTA's contribution to the union pension plan. The MTA initially demanded an increase in the union's contributions to both.

The final settlement was a contrast to what the MTA had dubbed its, "last, best, and final offer," announced on October 10. When the UTU negotiating committee rejected that offer, MTA officials announced that they would appeal to bus drivers directly to approve the contract offer. They mailed the proposal and a ballot to the 4,400 bus operators. Many angry UTU members denounced this as another union-busting move.

In response, union officials called a meeting October 13 to discuss the proposal and urge the bus operators to reject it. The rejection by voice vote of 2,500 drivers who attended that union meeting was unanimous.

In the settlement, the MTA backed away from some of those demands. These included the work rule requiring 12-13 hour availability with only 10 hours pay, a new and lower wage tier for part-time workers, and increased payments from union members for health benefits.

UTU president James Williams opened the October 17 union meeting stating, "The MTA wanted to use these negotiations to create a company of part-timers at $10 an hour. This was union-busting at its best, with millions of dollars to pull it off and we stayed the course. That is why we've been on strike for 32 days. I know we've suffered. But you have to do what you have to do. The MTA set out to divide and conquer. They got a little bit and we got a little bit. But I say we won and it's time to get the busses rolling."

The keynote speaker of the evening, introduced by Williams, was Democratic politician Jesse Jackson, who sat in on the last few days of the contract talks. Jackson declared both sides winners in the settlement, told the workers to "forgive, redeem, move on," and urged a vote for Democratic presidential candidate Albert Gore.

Several days before the settlement of the UTU strike, leaders of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 660, which organizes 47,000 county workers, announced that they would honor the request of Cardinal Roger Mahoney that union members return to work while bargaining for a contract continues. Local 660 had organized day-long rolling strikes that culminated in a countywide one-day strike on October 11. Almost all of the county workers returned to the job on October 12.

Over the course of the month-long bus drivers' strike, the confrontation between the drivers and the MTA was the topic of discussion all around the Los Angeles area.

A farm worker who marched with 200 others in Fresno on October 14 to demand rights for immigrants said he had heard about the bus operators strike in Los Angeles. "Yes, they're doing pretty good aren't they?" he said. He was impressed by the length of the strike.

Support for the strikers was strong among students at East Los Angeles College, one of the students told the Militant. Many students at the college depend on public transportation to get to school.

Irma, a worker at a local meatpacking plant who also rides the bus, said, "Sure they should get paid what they're asking for, after working all those hours."