Home Contra Costa County Directors: Labor Agreement Addressed Long-Term Solvency of BART

Directors: Labor Agreement Addressed Long-Term Solvency of BART

by ECT

BART

The following op-ed was submitted by BART Directors Gail Murray and Joel Keller who explained how the negotiations addressed the long-term solvency of BART.

Below is their op-ed.

You, the Bay Area public, suffered through two disruptive, frustrating, and expensive strikes.  We think you deserve to know why you got caught up in these seemingly interminable negotiations.  It’s because there was so much at stake. The result: contracts that addressed the long-term solvency of BART and the modernization of the system for the public.

The contracts contain an employee wage increase consistent with recently negotiated labor agreements in other Bay Area communities and mirrors the terms of the labor agreement approved for State employees.

In return, BART negotiated important cost-sharing reforms to provide financial sustainability:

  • For the first time, employees will start paying into their pensions.  This agreement sets BART on a path for the future that allows employees a good retirement while preventing pensions from eating up future budgets, as has happened in bankrupt cities like Stockton and Detroit.
  • Employees will now pay more toward their medical premiums, helping BART address rising medical costs. In addition, the number of years for an employee to be fully vested for retiree medical benefits will increase from the current five years to 15 years.

But even more important, gone are 40-year old work rules that required BART to negotiate changes that were commonplace in the rest of the industry. The BART Board fought hard to remove the “mutual agreement” requirement union leaders were using to block the introduction of new technology. Now, thanks to the BART Board making a stand, BART management gains the right to roll out technological improvements, needing only to “meet and confer” with unions about such changes.

This is vital because the fleet that BART is ordering will come with a host of modern technologies, and BART’s skilled technicians will now be able to make the most of them.

BART management also made important gains to improve attendance.  An example: employees who take an unpaid day off will no longer be eligible for overtime pay if they haven’t worked 40 hours that week.

These efficiencies will also save money BART can use to reinvest in our aging system to address threats to our reliability.  The Board of Directors has set three top priorities: the new trains; a new train control system to increase the frequency of rush hour service; and a state of the art facility in Hayward to maintain the new fleet efficiently.

This contract lays the ground work to avoid a downward spiral of BART service. Without reinvestment, BART faces eroded reliability, slipping ridership and dwindling revenues from ticket-paying customers.

We also didn’t want a prolonged strike. Extending the second strike would have only deepened the suffering of the public. The work stoppages cost people time and money they could ill afford to lose – service industry employees who risked being docked pay for being late, single mothers who paid extra money for child care, disabled people who had to scramble to find alternate ways to get to appointments.  The BART Board reached a reasonable compromise with its unions that we believe will benefit the public and the riders through substantial changes that were made in this ground-breaking contract now and in future years.

On the night the tentative agreements were signed, the Lieutenant Governor said, “This has to be the last time this happens. This was a reminder this weekend that this was about people.  Lots of people have had their lives affected by this.”

We, as BART Board members, agree. We pledge to work on finding a way to prevent this from happening again.

Joel Keller, Director, District #2

Gail Murray, Director, District #1

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4 comments

been here for a long time Nov 12, 2013 - 7:38 am

These two are dreaming. They sold out the taxpayers. If this deal was so good why did the CC Times have to threaten to sue to get the details? Keller just go away, you don’t represent the taxpayers, you are just a union lackey!

ECV Nov 12, 2013 - 10:05 am

Exactly. These BART directors have to go. They have sold out for the last time. They HAD the perfect opportunity to stand up and they failed to do so. Now they want another chance? For “next time”? This letter brings more attention to their failures. Sorry Joel Keller and Gail Murray but you had your chance. You had many chances. You both have been sitting on the BART board for too long. BART is a mess and quite frankly a joke when compared to other transit systems across the United States.

Jamie Thomas Nov 12, 2013 - 10:38 am

Fire all BART Directors ASAP! A 16% raise in this economy is foolish. Fire BART employees, upgrade technology and reduce overhead which should make for a cheaper ride from Pittsburg to SF. Nope, instead we continue to pay more for BART and can’t even get it out to Brentwood. The only interest the agreement benefited was employees, not the ridership.

peggy vertin Nov 13, 2013 - 9:01 pm

The BART Bpard didn’t do jack throughout the whole miserable BART contract negotiation process and my neighbor and I had a discussion just today about getting a new Board member for Contra Costa County since there is an election in 2014. BART Board and BART Management are pathetic.

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