With a possible second BART strike just 13 days away, the transit agency and its labor unions still seemed far apart on Monday but did agree on one thing: Both sides said they want to knuckle down at the bargaining table and work out a deal.

The unions and BART management were meeting with state mediators Monday at Caltrans headquarters in downtown Oakland. Still, the disagreements continued away from the table.

Service Employees International Local 1021, BART's largest union, held a press conference outside bargaining to release what it called an "investigation" into BART's chief negotiator, outside labor attorney Thomas Hock. The union alleges that Hock is a union buster accused of a long record of labor law violations and a history of provoking strikes. It also blasted him for being unavailable for 10 of the final 14 days of bargaining.

BART held a press conference at MacArthur Station to unveil a wooden mockup of the interior of its new rail cars - and to promote its need to buy 1,000 new rail cars, modernize its train control system and build a larger and upgraded train maintenance center.

Meanwhile, an Aug. 4 deadline for a potential second strike looms. BART's two biggest unions, SEIU and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, agreed on July 4, at Gov. Jerry Brown's request, to call off their four-day strike, resume train service and extend their contract for another 30 days while negotiations continued.

Main differences

The dispute centers on pay, contributions to pensions and monthly health insurance payments, and safety concerns. BART officials say they need to contain costs to raise the billions needed in system improvements by avoiding unaffordable pay raises, having workers begin paying a share of their pension contributions and increasing employees' monthly $92 health insurance premium.

Union officials say their employees went without raises for five years and made $100 million in concessions four years ago when the transit agency was struggling through the recession. Now that it's carrying a record number of riders - about 400,000 each weekday - and making an operating surplus, the union says it should share the wealth with workers.

When the unions struck on July 1, they were seeking a 23 percent pay increase over three years while BART was offering an 8 percent raise, with 3 percent contingent on the district attaining economic goals, over four years. But since bargaining resumed, both sides have agreed to keep the specifics of bargaining confidential, so it's difficult to tell how close they may be to reaching a deal.

"There is a huge divide, still, between the parties, which is very serious at this late date," said Josie Mooney, chief negotiator for SEIU.

Dispute on negotiator

Mooney said that Hock has been unresponsive and slow to respond to union proposals and spent little time at the bargaining table. Local 1021 President Roxanne Sanchez said he used manipulation, deception, stall tactics and surface bargaining to try to create a crisis and gain leverage.

BART officials said in a statement Monday afternoon that the lack of face-to-face meetings is not uncommon when mediators are involved in bargaining and proposals are exchanged through the mediators.

Grace Crunican, BART's general manager, defended Hock's record and reputation as well as his 10 days away from the bargaining.

"He's a great negotiator who has done a lot of labor contracts," she said. "What's important is that we focus on bargaining at the table. We're at the table today. We've got two weeks to go and that's enough time to get a deal."

Crunican said Hock's absence was planned and figured into the mediators' bargaining schedule. She said others on BART's 10-person bargaining team would be "negotiating all week long."