Reuters: Politics: Trains in San Francisco keep running as labor talks back resume

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Trains in San Francisco keep running as labor talks back resume Oct 17th 2013, 06:35 Share this Email Print Reprints By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Oct 16, 2013 8:54pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Negotiators hoping to avert a potentially crippling rail strike in the San Francisco Bay Area returned to the bargaining table on Wednesday to try to reach a deal, after unions agreed late on Tuesday for a third straight day to put off striking. Trains ran as usual on Wednesday, after talks between union and management wore on late into the night without a deal on a new contract for Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, workers. The sides have been at loggerheads for months. Management had been offering a 12 percent pay raise over four years to the workers, but wanted increased worker contributions to pension and health benefits. Unions had been seeking a similar raise, but over three years and without additional employee contributions. According to management, the BART workers earn on average $79,000 a year, plus benefits. The unions peg the average worker salary at $64,000. Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at University of California, Berkeley, said the union wanted the raises partly to make up for years of stagnant wages during the economic downturn. Union leaders also justify their demands for higher pay in part by pointing out that San Francisco and nearby Oakland are among the 10 most expensive U.S. cities. Shaiken said BART officials were seeking to conserve resources to update outdated parts of the transit system. The threat of a strike hangs heavy over the San Francisco area, where traffic is among the worst in the country and the BART trains carry more than 400,000 riders each day. A midnight strike deadline has come and gone for three consecutive days without a deal - news that came very late for commuters wondering how to get to work the next morning. "BART's phones are ringing off the hook," said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost. "Our email submission forms are flooding with concerned riders and concerned people from the Bay Area frustrated that we cannot tell them at a reasonable hour if the trains are going to be running tomorrow." The unions promised on Wednesday to give notice earlier about whether they would strike the next day. Roxanne Sanchez, president of the Service Employees International Union local, which, which along with the Amalgamated Transit Union, represents most of the BART employees, said progress had been made toward a resolution on Wednesday. POSITIVE SIGNS Ken Jacobs, chair of the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, said the postponements were a positive sign. "Each day when they postpone a strike another day, there is a clear sense that there is progress at the negotiating table," Jacobs said. "I think both sides understand the stakes in having a strike, and I don't think either side relishes being there." Adding to the pressure, a union representing workers at the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit Agency, which operates buses in many of the same communities served by BART, notified its management on Monday it could call a strike as soon as Thursday. California Governor Jerry Brown intervened on Wednesday to postpone such a walkout, at least for now, beginning a process to impose a 60-day cooling-off period. Brown had successfully sought such a period for BART workers, but it expired last week. Larry Gerston, a retired professor of political science at San Jose State University, has said the union might be reluctant to go on strike, partly because residents of the usually labor-friendly Bay Area are not seen as particularly sympathetic to workers' demands for higher wages. "The relatively high salaries of BART employees, the overtime they routinely get in conjunction with lots of sick time," have left residents skeptical of a strike, Gerston said. A recent management offer asks employees to pay up to $144 a month for health insurance and contribute up to 4 percent of their salaries to their pensions, Trost said. Union leaders note that would swallow up some of the 12 percent offered in raises. (Writing and additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Leslie Adler and Peter Cooney) nL1N0I61XL Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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