Negotiations set in transit strike

Offering a glimmer of hope that Santa Cruz County buses will soon be running again, negotiators for the two sides in the countywide strike have agreed to meet today at 5 p.m. to restart talks.

``I'm hopeful every time I walk back in the negotiating room,'' Bonnie Morr, chairwoman of United Transportation Union Local 23, said Wednesday night. ``We want to get the service rolling again. I don't like seeing kids hitchhiking.''

Thousands of college students and other people who depend on the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District, known as Metro, have been forced to hitchhike, take cabs or walk since 145 bus drivers walked off the job Tuesday morning. The strike came four days after a tentative settlement was rejected by the transit board.

Under the pact, bus drivers would have received a temporary reprieve from higher health insurance premiums in exchange for certain benefit cuts and an agreement not to walk out until at least July. But Friday, the Metro board rejected its negotiating team's recommendation, saying that temporary premium relief would be a mistake because it would hurt most drivers and help just a few.

As many as 20,000 riders a day use the Metro buses, 750 of whom take the Highway 17 Express between Santa Cruz County and Silicon Valley.

Les White, Metro's general manager, has sent individual letters to the district's drivers, urging them to cross picket lines so the district can restore some routes.

But Morr scoffed at the suggestion.

``Everyone is still picketing and staying strong,'' she said. ``There won't be any kind of limited service'' today.

White could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.

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Contact Ken McLaughlin at kmclaughlin@ mercurynews.com or (831) 423-3115.

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