San Francisco rail workers back to
bargaining after lawsuit
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[December 13, 2013]
By Laila Kearney
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Managers and
union leaders for San Francisco's commuter rail system, the nation's
fifth largest, began talks on Thursday to mend a collapsed contract deal
that has led to legal action and a possible return of transit strikes.
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Nearly two months after signing a tentative agreement, ending a
half-year of bargaining and two employee walkouts, officials for Bay
Area Rapid Transit (BART) and its two biggest unions have gone back
to the drawing board to resolve a single disputed contract term.
"The best thing would be to get to a place where we could close the
deal so our riders can stop being anxious about whether the trains
will run," said BART spokeswoman Luna Salaver.
BART and its unions reached a labor contract agreement in October
that included a family medical leave clause to allow workers six
weeks of paid leave to tend to ailing family members.
Shortly after union members ratified the deal, the BART Board of
Directors voted to approve the contracts without the clause, which
they said was mistakenly left in the agreement.
Then in December, the unions filed a lawsuit with the Alameda County
Superior Court to enforce the contract with the family leave term,
which they said BART unlawfully reneged on.
Salaver said BART could not afford the paid six weeks, which would
cost between $1.4 million and $44 million over the four-year
contract, depending on how many employees used it. Workers now get
12 weeks of unpaid time off for family care, she said.
BART negotiators and leaders of the Service Employees International
Union Local 1021 and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 were
meeting at BART headquarters in downtown Oakland, east of San
Francisco.
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A federal mediator who worked with the groups in the months leading
up to their October deal had returned to aid in the negotiations,
Salaver said.
SEIU spokeswoman Cecille Isidro said the meeting was the first time
the unions met with BART over the disputed contract term. Union
officials have said they would not rule out the option of a third
strike over contract disputes.
BART serves more than 400,000 daily riders in San Francisco and
surrounding suburbs. When union members went on strike for roughly
four days in July and again in October, commuters faced traffic jams
and many were forced to be late or miss work and school.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric
Beech)
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