OAKLAND BART was preparing to offer a last second contract proposal Thursday night in hopes of averting a strike as both sides remained at the bargaining table with less than an hour left to reach a deal.
As of 11 30 p.m. negotiations were continuing but no deal had been reached and the unions had not announced whether they would shut down the nation's fifth largest rail system starting Friday morning.
The 60 day cooling off period ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown to dodge a strike in August was set to expire Thursday at 11 59 p.m. The unions say they would like to give advance notice before possibly halting trains but the workers are not required to warn the public of a walkout ahead of time.
If our
talks do not lead to a deal tonight it is our hope that union leadership will agree to extend talks and not strike BART said in a statement Thursday night. We are prepared and willing to meet all weekend and as long as it takes.Still BART had not yet actually presented its new offer to the unions Thursday night several hours after announcing it was forthcoming.
We will see what happens when we actually get an offer said Antonette Bryant president of the local Amalgamated Transit Union.
Another union bargaining committee member Chris Finn said We haven't seen any movement from the BART board of directors. There are still a number of issues outstanding but this could be resolved very quickly.
BART's board which would need to approve a new labor contract postponed a special evening board meeting until Friday at 10 a.m. because there was no deal to vote on. But on Thursday morning at the regularly scheduled board meeting union members blasted agency leaders as they have time and again. The BART directors then met in closed session before telling chief negotiator Thomas Hock to submit a new proposal.
Starting this week at the suggestion of mediators both sides agreed to a blackout
on the contents of the latest proposals as they continue to fight over wage increases and other issues. Still heading into the day the union's chief negotiator said both sides were about $16 million apart or half the figure the workers quoted last week.It comes after another all day negotiation session ended on a sour note Wednesday night when the two unions representing 2 300 blue collar workers issued a statement indicating they were close to a deal before management pulled the rug from underneath them by taking back a recent offer. BART denied that and blamed it on a miscommunication.
We were this close Bryant said while holding her fingers a tiny bit apart and the bottom fell out.
Josie Mooney the chief negotiator for the other labor group the local Service Employees International Union said We were literally stunned.
BART officials said they were trying to put the spat behind them and were focused on reaching a deal.
The average line level employee at BART made $76 500 in gross pay last year the most of any transit agency in the state. Workers do not contribute toward their pensions and pay $92 per month toward health care regardless of how many dependents they have.
Workers have agreed to pay more toward their benefits but say they deserve a raise because they have not received a meaningful pay increase in more than four years even as BART's rider and tax revenues have soared to record levels. But management says its needs to keep employee costs under control as it tries to buy rail cars and make billions of dollars of upgrades to expand service and keep the 40 year old system running adequately.
A BART proposal made public late last week offered 10.25 percent in pay increases and pension contributions of 4 percent over four years. The two unions had countered with the equivalent of 18.4 percent pay increases. The gap between the proposals amounted to about $1 500 in pay increases per year for the average union employee.
Polls have repeatedly shown the public disapproves of a strike and that most people favor management's latest offer. A SurveyUSA poll commissioned by KPIX and released Wednesday showed that among respondents who were keeping up with the negotiations 54 percent said the unions should accept BART's offer. Just 16 percent thought management should cave and 22 percent wanted them to continue negotiating.
Negotiations began more than six months ago on opening day for the Oakland A's season. Since then the war of words and constant disagreement have frustrated Bay Area commuters and led to calls for state legislators to ban BART strikes.
The unions went on strike for 4 days in July and twice had threatened walkouts in August averted by Brown. But no one outside the talks can step in to stop a strike now.
BART which carries about 200 000 people round trip each day sees its rider counts grow 30 percent in October compared to the summer. Even so the July shutdown which was the first since 1997 slowed freeways and bridges to a crawl and forced standing room only buses and ferries.
Staff writers Matthias Gafni Rick Hurd and Doug Oakley contributed to this report. Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408 920 5705. Follow him at twitter.com/RosenbergMerc.
BART STRIKE SURVIVAL GUIDE
BART Would run charter buses from the East Bay to San Francisco from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. BART lots and garages would be available free as carpool staging areas. The white curb passenger loading zones could be used as casual carpool pickup and drop off locations.Ferries Additional ferry service from Vallejo Oakland Alameda/Main Street and Alameda/Harbor Bay.Trucks OK on I 580 Ban on big rigs from San Leandro to Oakland lifted from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays.Carpool hours Extended to 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on I 80 between Carquinez Bridge and Bay Bridge I 680 from north of I 580 to Benicia Bridge I 880 from San Jose to Bay Bridge toll plazas at Bay Carquinez Benicia San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges Highway 84 between Fremont and Dumbarton Bridge Highway 92 between Hayward and San Mateo Bridge.More info Call 511 or visit alert.511.org
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