BART strike averted - for now Gov. Brown's intervention will keep the trains rolling for the next 7 days - with no work stoppage permitted

Lead negotiator for BART, Thomas Hock, leaves the Department of transportation building on Sunday, August 04, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. Hock implied that he was leaving briefly to talk with other people for 'more input.' A crowd followed Hock as he left the building shouting, "Hock go home!" less Lead negotiator for BART, Thomas Hock, leaves the Department of transportation building on Sunday, August 04, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. Hock implied that he was leaving briefly to talk with other people for 'more ... more Photo: Rohan Smith, The Chronicle Photo: Rohan Smith, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close BART strike averted - for now 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

(08-05) 01:46 PDT Oakland -- BART trains will be rolling for at least another week after Gov. Jerry Brown stepped in late Sunday night to block an impending strike, just hours before the scheduled 12:01 Monday walkout by the transit system's union workers.

At the request of BART management, the governor appointed a three-member board of inquiry to investigate the stalled negotiations. In a letter to BART's general manager and three top union leaders, said he is stepping in because a strike "will significantly disrupt public transportation services and will endanger the public's health, safety and welfare."

The board must provide the governor with a written, public report on the contract talks within seven days, during which time the unions are not allowed to walk off the job nor can they be locked out by BART. Brown then will decide whether to impose a 60-day cooling-off period on BART and its unions, which would delay any possible strike until mid-October at the earliest.

Angry union officials, who earlier in the day had rejected BART's proposal for a week-long strike delay so that contract talks could continue, made the announcement of the governor's decision at about 10:15 p.m., after a full day of negotiations in Oakland.

They slammed the transit district for what they called "posturing" and "a refusal to bargain in good faith."

"We're extraordinarily unhappy this had to happen," said Antonette Bryant, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, which represents BART train operators and station agents.

The appeal to the governor "was the only option to keep the trains rolling," said Tom Radulovich, president of BART's board of directors.

Radulovich denied that the transit district is playing hard ball in the contract talks in an effort to break its unions.

"BART labor negotiations are always contentious," said Radulovich, who has been on transit district's board for 16 years. "But it gets frustrating to have the best wage increases and benefits in the transit industry and be told we're union busting."

Roxanne Sanchez, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said in a statement that BART negotiators have been dragging their feet in the contract talks.

"Our hope is that the Governor's Board can show the public how BART has manipulated the process and continued to bargain in bad faith," she said.

The three-member board will have both the unions and BART present their contract offers and their reasons for supporting or opposing a cooling-off period.

The panel will be headed by Jacob Appelsmith, a senior adviser to the governor and director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control since 2011. The other members are Micki Callahan, San Francisco's director of human resources, and Robert Balgenorth, president emeritus of the Building and Construction Trades Council of California.

The last time a cooling-off period was declared to block a BART strike was in 2001.

Brown's intervention Sunday came after some progress was made on the most contentious issues - pay raises, health care and pensions - figures on both sides said, but the negotiations went into recess shortly before 8:30 p.m.

The hard feelings between the union and BART were on full display Sunday.

About a dozen union workers harangued lead BART negotiator Tom Hock as he left the building where talks were being held at 8:15 p.m. Unions blame Hock's tough tactics for causing a 4 1/2-day strike in July. As he was being heckled with shouts of "Hock go home," Hock indicated progress was being made on the main financial issues.

That's not the way union negotiators saw it.

"I think you just saw the chief negotiator for BART headed out of the building," said Chris Finn of the transit workers union. "We've heard so many reports and promises of when Thomas Hock was going to be at the table and none of those have come through."

But by the time Hock left the talks, the governor already had decided to block the imminent strike.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was talking with union leaders at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday when he received a text message from the governor, telling him what was going to happen, said Patricia Schuchardt, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the smallest union in the BART negotiations.

Newsom, former mayor of San Francisco, "showed his concern by coming here today," Sanchez said, and the unions plan to ask for his help in resolving the contract dispute.

Preparations made

The jousting came as transit workers were organizing strike logistics and thousands of commuters fretted about how they would get to work Monday morning.

"This is about the whole Bay Area," said Jose Martin, an Oakland resident and professor at Berkeley City College who planned to take BART to San Francisco's Union Square on Monday.

"It interrupts the personal lives not only of individuals, but also businesses in the Bay Area and tourists," Martin said. "This is the height of the tourism season and you have this? It doesn't bode well for anybody."

BART's two largest unions were prepared to walk off the job and issued a 72-hour notice on Thursday that their 2,600 workers would strike Monday if they didn't reach agreement on a new contract by midnight Sunday.

Robert and Merriam Frazier of Concord, both train operators who have been at BART for 18 years, said they were ready to strike.

Before the governor's intervention, Merriam Frazier said, "We'll go to bed at our normal time, set the alarm. When the alarm goes off, he'll either go into work - and I'll be shutting the alarm off - or we'll be on the picket line."

Willing to strike

Robert Frazier said he didn't want to strike, but he would.

"It hurts me. It hurts everybody in the Bay Area," he said. "We don't want to do that. Unfortunately, that's the only thing we can do, especially with management's negotiating, or lack thereof."

The state's top mediators have been working with the unions and BART since late June in hopes of reaching a contract. Unions walked off the job during a 4 1/2-day July strike that created a thicket of traffic and commute headaches, with clogged roadways and long lines for buses and ferries. The state negotiators suggested the 30-day contract extension that lasted until Sunday.

The lengthy talks on Sunday came after more than 13 hours of bargaining on Saturday. Both sides, under a gag order from the mediator, were close-lipped about negotiation specifics on Sunday as they huddled inside a neutral site, the Caltrans district office in Oakland.

At one point, a union press conference called for Sunday afternoon was canceled. Later, about 20 union members, including some wearing T-shirts showing a BART train as a coiled king cobra ready to strike, came to the building to voice support for their bargaining team but provided little information on the substance of the talks.

Reporters eager for news swarmed a woman delivering a cake for the bargaining team for SEIU Local 1021, one of BART's two largest unions currently in the talks.

Later, about 20 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 chanted, "Are you ready to fight?" in front the building.

Some progress

Progress, though, was reported on what are called "supplemental agreements" on workplace rules and other side issues, said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost.

Despite a state-brokered 30-day contract extension that ended the July walkout, the points of contention are largely unchanged from last month.

BART is offering smaller raises than the unions are seeking, and the transit agency wants workers to begin paying into their pension fund and contribute more toward health costs. Union leaders say the result for many workers would be a net pay cut after years without raises.

Robert Frazier, the train operator, said he and his wife "are set up to go out for six months if need be."

"I really don't want to see that," he said. "The freeways would be a parking lot, and people would be shooting each other left and right. I don't want that to happen. Nobody does."