BART presents facts of labor contract negotiations to Governor's inquiry panel
BART is presenting its position on the state of contract negotiations, current offers to the unions and its financial outlook to Governor Brown's Board of Investigation today in Oakland as part of the process to get a 60 day cooling off period. The District requested the Governor to consider seeking the cooling off period to avoid disrupting the Bay Area with another crippling strike by the unions.
The three person, Governor appointed panel will use information from today's presentation to present a report to the Governor by Sunday. The Governor will then decide if he wants to move forward with a 60 day cooling off period. A cooling off period would ensure train service while negotiations continue during the 60 day time frame.
- BART outlined its current offer to it unions and how far its proposals have moved to try and reach a deal. The two parties remain far apart. The difference between BART's proposal and the unions' latest proposal in writing is about $100 million.
- BART is now offering a 9% pay increase over 4 years (2%, 2%, 2.5%, 2.5%). Before last weekend it was offering 8%, which was double that of its previous offer.
- BART is asking its employees to pay 5% over the course of a 4 year contract towards their pension (2%,3%,4%,5%). They currently pay nothing.
BART made a major concession on its medical contribution proposal just prior to the unions calling their 72 hour strike notice last Thursday. Instead of asking employees to pay a growing percentage of health care premiums, BART is now offering to allow employees to pay the same flat rate they are currently scheduled to pay. But BART will cap the amount it pays at the lowest cost of a Blue Shield or Kaiser family plan. Those who chose to pick a more expensive plan will have to pay the difference. This means most employees will see no difference compared to what they have now. Those employees who have more expensive plans can simply switch to the cheaper plan to avoid paying more than the flat rate.
The documents that BART presented can be downloaded below.
Complete Download:
Individual Sections:
Introduction and Overview (440 KB)
Financial and Compensation (344 KB)
2013 Negotiations Chronologies (265 KB)