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The BART strike in continuing for the third day although labor talks resumed Tuesday evening at the request of California Labor Secretary Marty Morgenstern, a spokesman for Gov. Jerry
Brown said.
BART labor negotiations ended unsuccessfully at 3 a.m. this morning and are scheduled to resume this afternoon at 1 p.m., according to BART spokesman Jim Allison said.
Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown, said Tuesday, “All parties are returning to the bargaining table tonight. To facilitate discussion between BART and its unions, the state is sending in two of its top mediators.”
He identified them as Anita Martinez, the chair of the Public Employment Relations Board, and Loretta van der Pol, the chief of the State Mediation and Conciliation Service.
BART spokesman Rick Rice said the talks would resume at 6 p.m. at the Caltrans building at 11 Grand Ave. in Oakland but Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 President Antonette Bryant said the talks will resume at 6:30 p.m.
Her union represents 945 station agents, train operators and foreworkers and the other union involved in the talks, Service Employees International Union Local 1221, represents 1,430 mechanics, custodians and clerical workers.
Tonight’s bargaining session comes toward the end of the second day of a strike by BART workers represented by the two unions.
Previously, negotiations were halted after union representatives left the table on Sunday, hours before their contracts expired at midnight, Rice said.
Bryant said earlier today that workers were hopeful talks will resume soon.
The strike, which began Monday morning, stems from disputes over issues including wages, health benefits, pension plans and safety.
Rice said management has offered to double salary increases from 4 percent over four years to 8 percent over the same period. He said management has also lowered the amount it was initially asking workers to contribute to pension and health care plans.
Rice said Saturday that the unions had come down from demanding a 23 percent salary increase to a 21 percent increase over a three-year period.
“We had some conversation Sunday night, but we’ve not been able to have a real conversation about our response and our proposal,” Rice said.
Bryant said the workers are asking for a 4.5 percent wage increase annually for three consecutive years. The unions have agreed to contribute half a percent more to their pension each year, she said.
She said union workers’ pension funds are 92 percent funded by BART, but that BART does not contribute to social security.
She said workers contribute $92 a month toward medical benefits.
Rice said the average annual compensation for workers represented by the two unions, including base salary, benefits and overtime, is about $134,000.
Bryant, a station agent herself, said the average salary of workers in her union is about $60,000 a year.
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Fire the entire bunch and start over…Hey BART Management have some guts and get off your behind and act…Air Traffic controllers are more important then these greedy people at BART. Put the word out “HELP WANTED” The line will be so long in a matter of hours.
Do what President Reagan did…show what leaders are really made of…
Thanks for Listening, Julia Pardini
Agreed!!! Terminate them all. Then when u rehire–try some “diversity” had hire white ppl who won’t hide behind a so is list thug union to protect their lazy asses.
The word is SOCIALIST
Better yet, fly in a bunch of workers from Myanmar and Sri Lanka – those people will work for pennies! Yeah! After all, people who work in the private sector have had their wages and benefits eroded badly over the past 30 years – isn’t the logical response to erode the wages and benefits of workers in the public sector to match that? We need to beat down those greedy workers who expect to be able to retire with a pension some day! That’s what “leadership” is all about, right? Keeping those uppity blue collar workers in their place.
After all, the top 1% of the wealthy folks in the nation have only seen their wealth and income double while wages stagnate – if we keep up the good work we could get to the point where the top 20% own 95% of the wealth in the country, and everybody else gets to share the remaining 5%!
Oh, wait – we passed that point a couple of years ago. Who wants to shoot for 98%?
Well, at least we can complain about minorities, right? I mean, the net worth of the average black or hispanic family has soared to almost 6% of the net worth of the average white family! Can’t let that happen, can we? That would be socialism, right?
Wait until the Valley Bullet Train To Nowhere gets built and those employees go on stike for higher wages.
Oh, yeah. No one will care because no one will be riding the train anyway.
Ah, but the unions will band together and strike the BART and Bus systems as well–that’s how have create “leverage”.
Just a prediction for the future–say, in 20-30 years.
The price for a train ride to LA will be huge (at least AFTER “they” ban cars from the rode….due to environmental air restrictions).
Why don’t you think that that is where we are headed?
The comment that these people are highly trained and would be difficult to replace is BS. Most of the jobs are grunt work and those that aren’t are controlled by computer. Training new workers would be a minimal task. Fire them. Hire people who want to work.
That’s right, Gary, grind ’em down! If we fire enough of these guys, we’ll eventually have them begging to pay for the chance to work, right? Lord knows, $60,000 a year is a freaking fortune in the Bay Area, and all those folks have to do to earn it is deal with the dignity and respect offered to them by guys like you.