BART Renews Offer to Return to Bargaining Table

The move involving the nation's fifth largest commuter rail service would leave hundreds of thousands of BART passengers stranded on both sides of the bay and clog highways and bridges with traffic.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson said Friday that no additional talks have been scheduled with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, BART's second-largest union.

Johnson said management negotiators have been trying to reach the leaders of Local 1555, which represents about 900 train operators, station agents and power workers, to schedule additional talks but haven't received a response.

BART board vice president James Fang said a strike would be "debilitating" and management wants to "sit down and hash out an agreement" rather than get into a confrontation with the ATU.

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Jesse Hunt, head of the ATU local, announced the intention to strike at a news conference late Thursday afternoon after talks had broken down with BART management.

Hunt said his union decided to go on strike as "a matter of fairness and equity" because management's contract proposal called for it to face "an unfair burden" compared to two other BART unions.

Those two, including the agency's largest, have approved new four-year contracts. But their leaders said they would honor Local 1555's decision to strike and would not cross any picket lines.

The ATU rejected a contract proposal earlier this week that would have frozen salaries, capped health benefits and imposed work rules intended to cut down on overtime.

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The union returned to the bargaining table Wednesday, but BART management declared an impasse. The union decided to strike after BART's board voted unanimously Thursday to impose terms on members that Hunt said would amount to a 7 percent pay cut.

Fang maintained that the board did not force the union's hand to go on strike.

"We didn't ask them to strike," but he said management decided to unilaterally impose terms and conditions of employment Thursday because the union's members have voted twice to reject contract offers.

Nonetheless, he said he wants the two sides to return to the bargaining table.

"Come on in, let's talk," Fang said. "We'll be there 24/7 from now until Sunday."

BART officials said the agency facing an 11 percent decrease in ridership and a projected $310 million deficit over the next four years; and it wants to reduce its labor costs by $100 million.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums have all called on BART and the union to return to the bargaining table.

"Both sides need to resolve their disputes and come to an agreement before taking drastic action that will have an immediate effect on the lives of so many Californians," Schwarzenegger said, noting that state mediators were available to help with negotiations.

Newsom added: "We're going to do everything in our power in the next 72 hours to make sure this (strike) doesn't happen. It will be a backbreaker."

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums said the strike could have a "tremendous impact" on Bay Area businesses.

Fang said he did not want a work stoppage that could linger into the Labor Day weekend when the Bay Bridge is scheduled to be closed for construction. He also described BART's last strike in 1997 as a "terrible mess."

BART has more than 100 miles of rail line and serves about 340,000 commuters a day. The agency planned to set up bus service in case of a strike, officials said.

Mark Farrell, 40, who takes BART from Oakland to his job at a life insurance company in San Francisco, said a strike could have a devastating effect for commuters already enduring a tough economy.

"This is going to be a complete mess," Farrell said. "If we can't get to work, a lot of us could lose our jobs."

The California Department of Transportation said commuters should try to carpool, use other public transportation, telecommute or even delay their trips in the event of a strike.

AC Transit, which provides bus service to communities in the East Bay, will be monitoring for areas where additional service is needed in case of a strike. Caltrain, which runs trains from San Jose to San Francisco, is already operating all of its available trains and will not increase service, said spokeswoman Christine Dunn.