BART, unions agree to settle final contract dispute Agency offers concessions to settle dispute over leave

BART, unions agree to settle final contract dispute
Agency offers concessions to settle dispute over leave
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/BART-unions-agree-to-settle-f...

By Nellie Bowles and Henry Lee

December 22, 2013

The bitter BART contract saga - a nearly yearlong struggle between the transit district and its unions that disrupted commutes and infuriated riders - may finally have come to an end Saturday as both sides agreed to settle their last remaining dispute.

The deal, announced early Saturday, dropped a controversial clause granting union members up to six weeks of paid family leave in return for several management concessions, including expanded bereavement leave and construction of new employee break rooms at three stations.

"After eight months of uncertainty for our riders, this deal will guarantee that every ounce of the Agency's focus will be directed to providing great service to the Bay Area during the peak holiday period and beyond," BART General Manager Grace Crunican said in a statement.

After two strikes and a 15.4 percent wage increase over the four years of the agreement, the concessions granted Saturday resolve all issues that remained in the new, 470-page contract.

Both unions plan to quickly bring the revised contract to their members for a vote.

The unions and BART, along with commuters and other transit riders, all thought the contract was settled in October, when a tentative agreement ended a four-day strike. But after the unions ratified the agreement Nov. 1, BART officials said its negotiators had mistakenly signed off on the family leave clause, which they argued could cost the transit district as much as $44.2 million over the life of the contract.

Transit agency officials contended that they never intended to agree to a section of the contract that gives employees up to "six weeks of paid time off to take care of a seriously ill child, spouse, parent or domestic partner or to bond with a new child." The district already provides up to 12 weeks of family medical leave, but any time after vacation days, sick leave or other accrued time off is unpaid.

Leave policy expanded

BART's Board of Directors approved the contract Nov. 21, but it left out the family leave provision.

In response, the unions sued in Alameda County Superior Court, seeking to have a judge force BART to abide by the entire tentative agreement, family leave included.

Under the deal announced Saturday, the district's bereavement leave policy will be expanded to allow workers paid time off after the death of a grandchild or stepparent of a spouse or domestic partner.

The agency also agreed to build new break rooms for station agents at the Daly City and Millbrae stations and construct a break room at the West Oakland Station, to be paid for through the district's existing station modernization program. BART will also allow eligible workers more flexibility in how they pay for the costs of their family medical leave.

The agency said there were "additional administrative changes" to the contract but did not elaborate.

Crunican said she will recommend the BART board ratify "as soon as possible" the final collective bargaining agreement with Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, BART's two largest unions.

"It's a fair resolution that would close months of drawn-out contract talks and - in the interest of the riding public - end the uncertainty caused by the board's removal of a section from our final, complete contract," John Arantes, president of SEIU Local 1021, said in a statement

Bitter contract talks

Antonette Bryant, president of ATU Local 1555, said she was glad to see the end of the dispute.

"More than the fact that our members have deserved this, the riding public has deserved this resolution for several months," she said. "This time, hopefully we can finish this, which is something we thought was finished months ago."

From the start of talks early this year, the contract negotiations were rancorous. The unions said their members made $100 million in concessions after agreeing to a contract deal during the 2009 recession when BART had a daunting $310 million deficit. Now that BART had a $215 million operating surplus from increased ridership, union leaders argued its members should get a share.

The unions originally demanded a 23 percent raise over four years; their average salary at the time was $61,000. BART offered a 1 percent raise. After strikes in July and October, divided by a 60-day cooling-off period demanded by Gov. Jerry Brown, BART and the unions agreed to a tentative deal - which included a 15.4 percent raise - on Oct. 21.

Despite the new contract, the transit unions may not be in the clear. The BART board's new president already has said he wants to make future strikes illegal.

Effort to ban strikes

Joel Keller said Thursday he plans to propose a three-county advisory ballot measure supporting state legislation to ban the transit district's 2,500 union workers from striking. On an average weekday, 400,000 people take BART.

Future labor disputes would instead have to be settled by binding arbitration, with no strikes allowed.

"We have to do something to change the cycle, where the negotiations create chaos, disrupt the economy, and people don't know from one day to the next if BART is going to be on strike," Keller said.

Nellie Bowles and Henry K. Lee are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail:nbowles@sfchronicle.com, hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NellieBowles, @henryklee