The 4,400 members of the United Transportation Union (UTU) are holding the line with picketlines, rallies and a bold determination to protect their wages and benefits in the face of massive proposed takeaways by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The MTA is demanding that the mostly African-American and Latino drivers give up $23 million in overtime and benefits over the next three years. The proposal includes that drivers should work a four-day week at 10 hours a day with no overtime pay, which, in reality, will result in drivers working up to 13 hours a day without overtime.

The transport union has firmly rejected that proposal and vowed to stay on strike until it is off the negotiating table. Siding with them is a broad coalition of elected officials, religious leaders and bus riders which is headed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor representing over 750,000 unionists.

"Are you going to accept them taking $23 million from you," shouted Miguel Contreras, executive secretary treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to the first rally of thousands of drivers and other unionists in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 21.

"No, hell no!" was the resounding response of the drivers.

Meanwhile the MTA is not budging from their position. Instead they are conducting an ugly media campaign against the drivers in an attempt to blame them for the transportation crisis which now exists in the city. Right after an agreement by both sides to a news black out, the MTA broke the pledge by running anti-driver radio ads which pit drivers’ wages against low-income bus riders. The MTA has falsely attempted to portray drivers as greedy and uncaring of riders.

The Bus Riders Union, an organization representing thousands of low-income bus riders in Los Angeles, has rejected those MTA claims siding with the striking drivers. In a strongly worded statement, the riders union charged the MTA with "provoking a strike" when they challenged the eight-hour day.

Last week, the UTU called another huge rally at City Hall to put the blame for the strike where it belongs, on the MTA and Republican Mayor Richard Riordan, who holds four votes on the 13-member MTA Board. The mayor has received much public criticism for being on vacation when the strike began, while the city was in crisis. Even in abstentia, the mayor was communicating vicious attacks against the strikers to the media.

Expressing their anger at this and the falsehoods against the strike, over 5,000 unionists, Black, Brown, white and Asian American, who participated in the "We Shall Overcome" rally last week, repeatedly shouted "Shame on you!" to the mayor, the MTA board and the County Board of Supervisors who have totally sided against the drivers.

Supporting the strikers at the rally were eight members of the state legislature and the majority of the L.A. City Council who blasted the mayor. Particularly poignant was Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas who arrived at the rally from a memorial for former Mayor Tom Bradley. Thomas said that Bradley had been committed to the dignity of labor and would never have "taken a hike in the middle of a strike."

Mayoral candidate, Antonio Villaraigoza, a trade unionist and Speaker Emeritus of the State Assembly, who grew up in East Los Angeles, spoke passionately to the drivers. "I know who you are. You are my next-door neighbor, you’re my cousin, you’re my auntie, you’re my friend. You are Los Angeles!"

"This fight today is about what kind of city we want to live in – a city of just rich and poor, or a city where we reward work and we fight for middle–class jobs!" continued Villaraigoza.

The MTA has also claimed that the wages and benefits of Los Angeles drivers is way out of proportion with other major cities. The Los Angeles Times did research to expose those claims as false.

The strikers have pointed to the irony of the MTA claims not to have funds for workers when they spent over $480 million to build an ornate MTA headquarters which drivers call "the Taj Majal."

Another critical issue which affected the negotiations was a bill before Gov. Gray Davis which would require any breakaway transit district to honor existing MTA labor contracts. This was a big issue for the mechanics local which had joined the drivers strike. Davis signed the bill on Sept. 30 with a statement that he expected the strike to end soon as a result.

The response to this was a surprise move, last Monday, by presidents of union locals representing MTA mechanics and supervisors. They ordered workers to go back to work and cross drivers’ picketlines. Totally rebuffing that, on Tuesday, only eight of 2,000 mechancis walked across the strike lines.

A married couple, both dispatchers for MTA, were asked to go back to work and refused, even though each day of the strike meant that their two daughters and they will have to suffer financially. "There’s just no way we’re not going to back those drivers. Not a chance. No matter how bad it gets for us," Fernando Sauceda told the press.

The mechanics rank and file solidarity which has been strong throughout the strike has given the drivers a boost of optimism. James Williams, president of the UTU, which represents the drivers, told the media after negotiations on Tuesday that he thought "we have finally got on the right road."

The strike has the same determination and courageous passion that the janitors strike had earlier this year. At press time, the drivers unanimously rejected a request by Gov. Gray Davis that they return to work while negotiations continue.

One driver told the World, "We know that our refusing these takeaways will impact on other public workers and their future negotiations. We are willing to take the heat for ourselves and for the sake of those to come.