Vol. 77/No. 42      November 25, 2013

Transit bosses backed off some of their demands in the contract, which was approved by more than 85 percent.

On Oct. 19 contractor Laurence Daniels and Christopher Sheppard, a member of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993, which organizes salaried employees and was not part of the walkout, were struck by a train and killed while inspecting track.

Prior to this most recent strike, the 2,400 station agents, train operators, clerical workers, mechanics and maintenance workers at BART organized a four-day walkout in July. That action ended when the transit unions agreed to return to work for 30 days, followed by a court-ordered 60-day “cooling off” period.

“During the negotiations management kept telling us they wanted the ‘freedom to manage,’” Des Patten, a member of the bargaining committee and president of the BART Professional Chapter of SEIU Local 1021, told the Militant.

“They wanted to be able to change job descriptions without notification and prior approval and they wanted freedom to change people’s work schedules from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days on a weekly, even daily basis,” Patten said.

Management also proposed that “extra-board” employees, workers with lower seniority who are on-call, could be assigned to work at any yard spanning the 55-mile system, instead of a set location.

“None of these new work rules are in the new agreement,” Patten said.

The new agreement includes a 15.38 percent wage increase over four years. Workers health care contributions were raised $37 per month and, for the first time, workers will pay an annual 1 percent employee contribution to pensions.

The two employees killed during the strike were working to company regulations called “simple approval,” which put all the responsibility on track workers to avoid being hit by incoming trains. One track worker was supposed to look out for trains traveling up to 70 miles per hour, which gives them about 15 seconds to get out of the way.

BART management, which claimed it kept employees “alert,” resisted changing this policy even after a BART track worker was killed in 2001 and another in 2008.

On Oct. 31, the California Public Utilities Commission established safety regulations that include mandatory three-way radio communication between track workers, train operators, and central command; and slower speed limits and warning flags for work areas.
 
 
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