BART, unions meet again Tuesday afternoon - no strike

Federal mediators George Cohen, right, and Scott Beckenbaugh, left, announce that train service would run on Tuesday as they continue to negotiate overnight. BART negotiations continue on Tuesday, October 15, 2013, in Oakland, Calif., as both sides addressed the media overnight after the midnight deadline. less Federal mediators George Cohen, right, and Scott Beckenbaugh, left, announce that train service would run on Tuesday as they continue to negotiate overnight. BART negotiations continue on Tuesday, October 15, ... more Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 33 Caption Close BART, unions meet again Tuesday afternoon - no strike 1 / 33 Back to Gallery

(10-15) 06:08 PDT OAKLAND --

As the clock ran out Monday on a midnight strike deadline, BART and its unions continued their agonized search for a contract agreement - and a federal mediator said this extension of the talks meant the trains will run as normal on Tuesday.

Shortly after 1 a.m., mediator George Cohen emerged from the Caltrans building in Oakland where negotiators were holed up and announced that a walkout was delayed for at least one more day.

"The bargaining has produced some productive" negotiations, and because of that, both sides will continue talking, said Cohen, who is director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, D.C.

"Because of all of our concerns, I am authorized to say the trains will run" Tuesday, Cohen said. He refused to elaborate further, and went back inside. Cohen flew to Oakland on Sunday to help both sides come to resolution.

Talks then continued into the early morning with sources reporting agreements on some key parts of the contract but not others. At 5:30 a.m., Cohen reemerged and said both sides would take a break until 1 p.m. Tuesday. "Negotiations are continuing, and we will be back at it early this afternoon," Cohen said.

A BART strike would cause forehead-pounding gridlock throughout the Bay Area for drivers and other commuters.

The transit district's weekday ridership exceeds 400,000, and although regional transportation officials have cobbled together a strike plan enlisting charter buses, larger transit buses and extra ferries, they acknowledged that there was no way to replace BART's capacity. They said filling empty seats in commuters' cars through carpooling was the best bet - although, as in the truncated BART strike in July, the traffic would probably still be flowing like molasses.

Fed up with the seemingly endless bargaining and repeated strike deadlines, BART had surprised the unions Sunday by presenting them with what they called a final offer at 4 p.m., eight hours before a strike deadline. On Monday, the transit agency's two largest unions - Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 - spent the day trying to persuade BART negotiators to withdraw or alter that final offer.

Unions' new offer

Tensions remained high as the deadline approached. Union negotiators said they made a new offer late in the evening, and that BART representatives were considering it. That was the last word that came from either side as the clock dribbled well past 12:01 a.m. Tuesday until Cohen came out.

BART said it was offering a 12 percent raise over four years, and provisions that would have employees paying in a 4 percent pension contribution and a 9.5 percent health insurance contribution. But then, after a furious response from union negotiators, BART officials said they would be willing to make some changes in the offer and keep talking.

BART General Manager Grace Crunican said the offer was worth $7 million more than the offer on the table Friday, but declined to offer further details. The unions have not announced whether they would put the offer to a vote, saying they want to keep negotiating.

"Nobody wants a strike," said Tom Radulovich, BART board president. "What we want is for our unions to take the offer to their members for a vote."

Negotiators for BART's two largest unions - Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 - denounced BART's final offer, saying they had been making progress at the bargaining table and had been close to a deal when BART slapped it on the table. They urged BART to rescind that offer, and as the day wore on, appeared to be growing increasingly frustrated at the transit agency's refusal.

At about 5 p.m., one union official all but declared a strike.

"Unless something breaks, and there is a Hail Mary, there will be a strike," said Pete Castelli, executive director of the SEIU local.

Something akin to that Hail Mary apparently came, since BART and the unions continued to talk even as the workers made strike preparations.

Legislators criticize BART

A delegation of East Bay legislators, some of whom had spent parts of the past few days sitting outside bargaining and meeting with the unions, had criticized BART's Sunday move and asked it to withdraw the final offer, saying the unions had agreed to postpone a strike for a day as a good-faith gesture.

"We want BART to be similarly responsive," Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, said Sunday. "We want BART to keep talking."

BART, the unions and three federal mediators then met past 2 a.m. Monday and resumed bargaining later that morning. They met throughout the day, with the assistance of three federal mediators.

Union representatives said they believed BART's issuance of the final offer was meant to provoke a strike.

"We are being backed into a corner," said Antonette Bryant, president of the ATU local. "We don't want to strike. We are trying to get a deal done."

As she walked into bargaining Monday, Josie Mooney, a chief negotiator for the SEIU local, agreed. Unless BART altered or withdrew its final offer, she said, union workers would go on strike Tuesday morning. "It doesn't make any sense for them to make a last, best and final offer that they knew would be unacceptable," she said.

Possible AC Transit strike

Adding to the potential chaos for Bay Area commuters this week, AC Transit drivers and mechanics issued their own 72-hour strike notice Monday.

Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192 threatened to walk off at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

The union members rejected a three-year contract proposal Oct. 1, an offer that included a 3 percent raise in the first two years and a 3.5 percent bump the third. The union members also rejected a less generous offer in August.

AC Transit management received the strike notice letter Monday morning. "We are reviewing it to determine what steps we will take next," said Clarence Johnson, the agency's spokesman.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Jill Tucker and Henry K. Lee contributed to this report.