Elsewhere: BART, unions reach agreement, BART, Unions Announce Deal; No Strike, BART Workers and Board Must Ratify Agreements Averting Strike
12:03 PM: BART’s released their announcement, noting in it that “The tentative agreement must be ratified by members of all three unions along with the BART Board of Directors before it takes effect. In general, the agreement preserves base salaries, caps benefit costs and reforms work rules to make BART run more efficiently.” Well, that sounds wonderful, what took y’all so long? KIDDING.
11:56 AM (BCN): BART management and union leaders this morning announced a tentative agreement on new four-year contracts that, if given final approval, will avoid a strike by BART workers.
The announcement was made late this morning in Oakland, after 27 straight hours of negotiations, by BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger, Services Employees International Union Local 1021 President Lisa Isler, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 President Jesse Hunt.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993 President Jean Hamilton also issued a statement this morning announcing a tentative agreement.
The three unions represent more than 2,800 BART workers.
The officials each noted the tentative agreements still need to be ratified by union members.
Dugger said during a news conference that an agreement was reached “that was fair, that achieves our goals, that will help put us on financially stable footing.” She said it included changes to work rules and capping the cost of benefits.
Isler said it included no job cuts and no salary cuts.
“We can get back to work, and get on with providing service to the
public,” Isler said, adding that she hoped SEIU members would ratify the agreement by the end of next week.
Hunt said all parties made sacrifices to reach the agreements.
“This has been an extraordinarily difficult negotiations, in extraordinarily poor economic times,” Hunt said.
11:30 AM (BCN): BART management and union leaders this morning announced a tentative agreement on a four-year contract. The announcement was made late this morning in Oakland by BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger, Services Employees International Union President Lisa Isler, and Amalgamated Transit Union President Jesse Hunt.
11:25 AM: BART management and all three labor unions have reached what AFSCME local 3993 President Jean Hamilton has characterized as a “conceptual agreement” this morning. “There are still a lot of details to work out” she told the Appeal, “but we’re as comfortable as we can be in this economy.”
While the 4-year contracts have yet to be approved by the BART board of directors, but it includes changes to work rules, among other concessions. “The goals of cost reduction were met, and we were able to help out with BART’s economic situation while still protecting our members” said Hamilton, who spoke to us (handsfree!) from her car on her way back from a quick trip home for a change of clothes after the grueling 36-hour negotiation session. “We’re just happy to have these negotiations over” she said.
