The San Francisco Bay Area's heavily used rapid rail system, BART, is poised to shut down if contract negotiations with its union workers are not resolved by midnight Tuesday.
Union leaders and Bay Area Rapid Transit negotiators returned to the bargaining table Friday after unions representing 2,500 workers rejected management's latest offer.
Two of the unions lowered their demands for a 26.5% raise over three years to a 21.5% increase over the same period. BART is offering the workers a four-year deal, with raises totaling 18.5%.
"BART's proposal will not cut it. We think where we're at now is a good place to be," said Larry Hendel, president of Service Employees International Union Local 790, who was also speaking for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555.
Union leaders said they want raises for BART employees to offset the high cost of living in the Bay Area, pointing to the transit system's increased revenues in the last four years as a sign that it can afford the proposed raises. But BART officials said they must use the revenue to improve aging trains and stations, which each day move about 300,000 commuters from one end of the bay to the other.
"Even if we had a pot out there of money, which we don't, that money has to go somehow to serve the public, not just the employees," said BART spokesman Mike Healy. "We don't know why they would reject [the management proposal]. It's a pretty good offer."
The third union, representing about 230 BART workers, began preparing a separate counteroffer Friday. Norma del Mercado, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993, said BART basically told them to "take it or leave."
The rail system, built in the 1970s, has come under pressure from union leaders and rider associations recently to replace the aging and damaged facilities. Elevators and escalators are often broken and shut down. Ticket machines gobble money or break down entirely.
BART may need to increase fares because of the contract negotiations, and to cover the improvements and proposed expansions that would create new routes farther away from San Francisco, Healy said.
While commuters start looking for other ways to get to work after the Labor Day holiday, the Metropolitan Transit Commission is asking BART riders to brace for the worst. Ferries and cross-bay bus routes are expected to be so crowded that riders will be turned away.
