BART board to meet Friday about contract glitch

(11-15) 07:08 PST OAKLAND -- BART directors will meet in a special closed-door session Friday to discuss how to handle a clause the transit agency's management says was inadvertently included in the tentative contract with its labor unions.

The tentative agreement, reached Oct. 21, ended a four-day strike by BART's two largest unions - the second strike in four months. The unions, Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, have overwhelmingly ratified the agreement.

BART's Board of Directors was scheduled to do the same at its meeting this coming Thursday. But according to Kerry Hamill, a BART assistant general manager, "BART management believes that a provision that it did not agree to was inadvertently included in the final labor package."

On Thursday, the board hastily called Friday's special meeting to discuss the issue and review the rest of the contract. State meeting laws allow special meetings in urgent situations to be called with 24-hour notice.

Antonette Bryant, president of the ATU local, said in a statement that she expects the board to approve the contract.

"We negotiated in good faith for six months," she said. "BART management is now attempting to go back on agreements it made in July and August and that were part of the final deal. This is unconscionable."

BART officials have faced much criticism for the tentative agreement, which gives workers 15.4 percent in raises spread over four years and bonuses of up to $1,000 a year. According to reports, the provision under dispute concerns a clause that gives workers the right to take up to six weeks of family leave.

BART Board Director Zakhary Mallett held a news conference Thursday evening and said, "The paid family leave component was not supposed to be in there, and we are investigating why."

Later, when asked about the possibility of another work stoppage, Mallett said, "We obviously do not want a BART strike, and we will do everything in our means to avoid that."

Hamill said BART management is calculating the potential cost of the provision, and said the board will have to consider it into its ratification decision.