Politics & Government

BART Employees Striking Over Work Rules, Not Pay or Benefits

One example of a work rule is an employee who claims overtime in a week when they also had a sick day. BART management wants to squash this. Another example is requiring workers to take electronic pay stubs rather than paper ones.

By Bay City News Service

BART and its unions are no longer stuck not on big issues like pay or benefits but on something called "work rules."

BART General Manager Grace Crunican said Thursday that management had offered a 12-percent raise over four years, with workers paying a 4 percent pension contribution and a 9.5 percent increase in their health care contributions.

Crunican said the sticking points are related to management's proposed work rules, which she said are essential to maintaining BART's effectiveness. Crunican said the rights laid out in the proposal give management the flexibility it needs to maintain an efficient system and cut out wasteful practices. 

She gave an example of pay stubs, saying management needs the ability to have pay stubs delivered electronically rather than be required to have a worker deliver paper stubs to employees. 

Josie Mooney, a lead negotiator for Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said union leaders offered to go to arbitration to try to resolve differences about management's proposed changes to work rules but management refused.

Speaking to reporters outside the Caltrans building in downtown Oakland where contract talks took place, Mooney said Thursday the unions' plan to go on strike "is not about money" but instead is about "an employer who wants to go on strike." 

Antonette Bryant, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, said in a statement that, "We've found agreement on nearly every 'must-have' issue for both sides including wages, pensions and benefits." 

But she alleged that "the last 72 hours have seen management demand new —and unreasonable — workplace authority that would give them license to abuse and extort our workers." 

BART management spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the transit agency wants work rules to be part of a comprehensive agreement with its employees, not a separate matter that would be decided in arbitration. Trost said management wants to change work rules because it believes it would make BART more efficient and save money. 

 Rick Rice, another BART spokesman, said, "Work rule changes are very important and we're insisting on them." Although Bryant said the unions had found agreement with management on wage, pensions and other benefits, Rice said management was still "far apart" from the unions on those issues. 

BART Board President Tom Radulovich said on Monday that one work rule management wants to change is a provision that allows workers to get overtime even on weeks when they call in sick for a day if they work an extra day when they weren't originally scheduled to work. 

"They can get overtime even though they don't work 40 hours," Radulovich said. He said, "Most of our workers don't do that, but some do." 

 Radulovich said current work rules that management believes favor workers are "a very expensive proposition" for BART. Rice said at this point no further meetings between management and the unions are scheduled. "I don't know when we might meet again," he said.

Crunican said BART management's offer will expire on Oct. 27 if the unions do not accept it. 

 Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has been at the table for some of the negotiations this week. He said the unions could strike because "people will do things sometimes that are not in their best interest because they think there are no other alternatives." 

Newsom said BART management representatives might feel like they have the support of the public, but if there's a strike, "no one's a winner."

Are these work rules worth a strike? What do you think? Tell us in the comments section below.

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