Gov. Brown Intervenes to Stop BART Strike—for a Week, at Least - Wall Street Journal
California Gov. Jerry Brown halted a transit strike threatening the San Francisco Bay Area's main commuter rail system, invoking a law that makes a strike illegal for, effectively, the next seven days.
Because a strike would "disrupt public transportation services and will endanger the public's health, safety, and welfare," Gov. Brown said in a statement Sunday night, he had appointed a three-member board to investigate "the threatened strike" over the next seven days. California law prohibits a strike while the investigation proceeds.
Associated Press Bay Area Rapid Transit workers picketing during last month's four-day strike; with management and unions still far apart Sunday night, Gov. Jerry Brown intervened to delay a second strike by a week.
Train drivers, station agents and other workers of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System announced the strike late last week after union and BART negotiators failed to make significant headway toward a new labor contract.
It would have been the summer's second BART strike. The first, which lasted four days the first week of July, cost the Bay Area at least $73 million daily in lost productivity, according to Tracey Grose, the vice president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, a nonprofit research organization.
BART Board President Tom Radulovich, in a Sunday letter to Gov. Brown requesting he intervene to prevent a second strike, said the union's demands are still insupportable.
"The BART system is aging, and needs considerable reinvestment to meet the mobility needs of the Bay Area while state and federal support for transit dwindle," Mr. Radulovich wrote. "Meanwhile, the cost of maintaining benefits continues to grow faster than our revenues. Our labor agreements must reflect these financial realities."
Pete Castelli, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said BART's offer Sunday was "regressive"—financially worse for his members than its previous offer—while BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said, "We made a steadily upward climb in our offers all weekend, offering more and more—the wage proposal went up."
"They were calling our proposal regressive," she said, "and our response was we only went in one direction, and that was up."
As of about a month ago, Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 were asking for a 4.5% wage increase for each of the next three years, along with an annual 2.2% cost-of-living adjustment. BART, Ms. Trost said, has offered an 8% salary increase over four years, while also asking workers to pay more for health insurance, saying their premiums are some of the lowest in California.
According to Ms. Trost, after the governor-appointed panel releases its report, the governor will have the option of asking a judge to impose a 60-day strike injunction as negotiations proceed.
The last BART strike before July's was in 1997.
California Gov. Jerry Brown halted a transit strike threatening the San Francisco Bay Area's main commuter rail system, invoking a law that makes a strike illegal for, effectively, the next seven days.
Because a strike would "disrupt public transportation services and will endanger the public's health, safety, and welfare," Gov. Brown said in a statement Sunday night, he had appointed a three-member board to investigate "the threatened strike" over the next seven days. California law prohibits a strike while the investigation proceeds.
Associated Press Bay Area Rapid Transit workers picketing during last month's four-day strike; with management and unions still far apart Sunday night, Gov. Jerry Brown intervened to delay a second strike by a week.
Train drivers, station agents and other workers of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System announced the strike late last week after union and BART negotiators failed to make significant headway toward a new labor contract.
It would have been the summer's second BART strike. The first, which lasted four days the first week of July, cost the Bay Area at least $73 million daily in lost productivity, according to Tracey Grose, the vice president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, a nonprofit research organization.
BART Board President Tom Radulovich, in a Sunday letter to Gov. Brown requesting he intervene to prevent a second strike, said the union's demands are still insupportable.
"The BART system is aging, and needs considerable reinvestment to meet the mobility needs of the Bay Area while state and federal support for transit dwindle," Mr. Radulovich wrote. "Meanwhile, the cost of maintaining benefits continues to grow faster than our revenues. Our labor agreements must reflect these financial realities."
Pete Castelli, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said BART's offer Sunday was "regressive"—financially worse for his members than its previous offer—while BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said, "We made a steadily upward climb in our offers all weekend, offering more and more—the wage proposal went up."
"They were calling our proposal regressive," she said, "and our response was we only went in one direction, and that was up."
As of about a month ago, Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 were asking for a 4.5% wage increase for each of the next three years, along with an annual 2.2% cost-of-living adjustment. BART, Ms. Trost said, has offered an 8% salary increase over four years, while also asking workers to pay more for health insurance, saying their premiums are some of the lowest in California.
According to Ms. Trost, after the governor-appointed panel releases its report, the governor will have the option of asking a judge to impose a 60-day strike injunction as negotiations proceed.
The last BART strike before July's was in 1997.