14 DAY TRIAL // Negotiators are letting commuters in the Bay Area know that they have not reached an agreement and a BART strike cannot be avoided at this point.
"We deeply regret that we have made no progress today. [...] BART management continues to bargain in bad faith," informs Josie Mooney, chief negotiator for Service Employees International Union Local 1021.
An agreement had not been met by Sunday night, June 30 and signs warning passengers about a possible strike were put in place yesterday.
The Union contract expired on Sunday and officials from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 tried to negotiate with worker reps.
"It's not even dark yet and the unions left for the evening. [...] BART negotiations have a tradition of going until midnight - even past midnight," San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesperson Alicia Trost described yesterday.
"We apologize to our riders. ... We're sorry they've been dragged into this labor mess," Trost notes.
Officials from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 were at the meeting speaking for 945 train operators and station agents.
"We are hoping the district brings us something substantive that we feel we can take to our members so we can settle this," President Antonette Bryant says in a statement.
The workers have objections to the manner in which officials are handling their pension contributions. At the moment, no payments to pension funds are provided in the contracts.
Other items in the discussion include wages and payments to health insurance funds. BART staffers are currently $92 (€70) per month for health insurance.
They have been offered a 2 percent annual raise, BART spokesman Rick Rice tells the San Francisco Gate.
"On the surface it looks like a raise. [...] But it's not really a raise. It certainly leaves us in the red - 3 to 4 percent lower than our wages now," Bryant responds.