A Winning Settlement Avoids BART Strike
The dramatic Labor Day settlement that spared the Bay Area, and 2500 workers, including 1700 Local 790 members, from a transportation-crippling BART strike, had many heroes.
"Labor had to power ahead on all cylinders to get this one," observes 790 Chief Negotiator Larry Hendel, "using organizing, political pressure, and bargaining strategies, and we came out with a very strong contract."
In the hot glare of the settlement publicity -- and no Bay Area labor story gets covered so intensely as a potential BART strike -- you may have seen them on TV, behind the elected official-mediators and district executives: and a dedicated Local 790 team, with their brothers and sisters from Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, that had endured exasperating contract talks since March 19.
The Local 790 team: BART Chapter President Dennis Kaczor, BART Professional Chapter President Sue Angeli, BART Chapter Vice Presidents John Maher and Manuel Vega, Joe Bomberger, Bud Brandenberger, Roscoe Daniels, Harry Gordon, Annie Hamp, Bob James, Tom Joseph, Randy McCluney, Ron Rowell, Andrew Shaifer, Eric Thompson (who designed the campaign's buttons and t-shirts), Eloise Tucker, Milt Waalkens, and Peggy Watts.
If there had been a strike, both unions would have been much better prepared than 4 years ago
This contract campaign was different than previous ones at BART. An aroused membership participated in numerous rallies, including a boisterous lunchtime set-to at BART headquarters on August 15; an active contract support team, led by members Phyllis Pinkston, Helen Stone and Dave Dave Harmon kept pushing the issues at the worksite. 790 staff, led by Steve Wilensky and organizer Karen Ridley, came on board to set up the most ambitious strike preparations in 25 years at BART. (Over 1200 790 members had signed up for shifts of picket line duty.)
"Had there been a strike, we would have been better prepared than ever before," notes Hendel.
On another front, both ATU and 790 had come up with an ambitious media program to talk to the public about the issues before any possible strike. Ads were put up in BART stations in June and one-third page ads were placed in the San Francisco Chroncle and KCBS and KGO radio in the three weeks leading up to the deadline.
And . . . the political card was played. State Senator Don Perata informed BART early on that he would see to it that, in the event of a strike, the state legislature would be looking into BART's books. Perata, a key power figure in Sacramento, was also there on Labor Day, along with San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, Assembly Member Dion Aroner, State Senator Tom Torlakson, Assembly Member Joe Canciamilla, and Oakland City Council Member Ignacio De La Fuente. This all-star lineup, meeting for hours with both sides on the holiday, can take major credit for affecting an agreement.
Four days earlier, both sides had been far apart, with management offering raises averaging 2.75% a year, and takeaways on medical coverage. The joint ATU-790 team knew the District could do a lot better: ridership is up 25% over four years ago, and revenues up 30%. The workforce had grown only by 4%, and the District has recently granted double-digit raises to top management. Also, it didn't look good that six months before negotiations, the District transferred millions of dollars from its general fund to a capital improvements fund.
"We had established that BART has been unusually prosperous during this period," notes Hendel.
As recently as noon on Labor Day, BART management had stated it would not go one step further than its updated offer of 4.5% increases a year. By late evening, in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the threat of a strike starting on Wednesday, the terms of the agreement were arrived at.
The Settlement
a 6% increase in the first year of the contract (retroactive to July 1, 2001), followed by annual increases of 5, 5, and 6%;
a 3.5% increase in District contributions to the employees' money-purchase annuity plan. This represents a sharing of the savings BART has had from its "superfunded" status with the California Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). Because of the superfunding, BART has not been obligated to make any PERS contributions, and workers felt that the savings should at least be shared between the supplemental retirement plan and the rest of BART's needs. Should the superfunded status diminish, new arrangements will be made.
full maintenance of medical benefits for all workers and retirees to any PERS plan, with maximum employee cost of $25 per month.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Day will become a holiday in year two of the contract;
enhanced bereavement leave, holiday pay, and contract language on several points. |
