No toll hike — workers to be cut
The transit district that runs the Golden Gate Bridge, buses and ferries decided Friday to lay off 146 employees, mostly bus drivers, rather than pursuing an option to raise tolls on the bridge as it grapples with a looming budget crisis. The board of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District voted 115 for the cuts, postponing them from Dec. 5 as originally proposed to Jan. 4 after the holidays. The district chose to make the cuts as it runs out of federal emergency funds at the end of this month that it has largely been using to pay its employees. The district needs to fill a $ 48 million shortfall this fiscal year.
The district is the first Bay Area transit agency to implement a mass layoff, according to Randy Rentschler, legislative
director with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, but it might not be the last. Nearly every agency, including BART, Muni and Caltrain, has been financially devastated by the pandemic and is facing dire budget projections. Many are debating cutting staff, trimming service or making other difficult decisions as federal money dries up.
The district can call an emergency meeting before Jan. 4 to reconsider if another federal relief bill is passed or unions come forward with a plan to furlough staff that would save as much money, General Manager Denis Mulligan said. The board also approved a $ 2.1 million severance package and a temporary pay cut for management in the same meeting.
“We can all agree these are decisions no organization wants to face,” board President Barbara Pahre said Friday. “The actions we’ve taken today have clearly been emotional and caused lots of soul searching. None of us wanted to be there. It caused great sadness and distress for the bridge district.”
The vote divided the board’s directors and sparked objections from dozens of union leaders and district workers, who feared losing salaries in a recession and health care amid a global pandemic, during the nearly 3 ½ hour special meeting.
The board had faced three options to cut costs or raise revenue, but opted not to hike tolls by either $ 2, which would have averted layoffs, or by $ 1.25, which would have required furloughing employees one day a week. Any toll increase would have required a public hearing. If the board voted down increases after hearing from the public, the layoffs would automatically be enacted.
During the pandemic, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge has fallen 30%. Ridership on buses is down 75% and the number of ferry passengers has plunged 96%, according to a staff report. Revenue from tolls and fares dropped $ 2 million a week. In response, the district cut 75% of weekday and all weekend ferries and ended almost all bus commute trips, though regional bus routes expanded.
The transit district survived with $ 51.6 million in federal relief funds from the Cares Act, but that’s running out at the end of November. Around 70% went to salaries and benefits and an estimated 30% to operations, including fuel, maintenance and repairs, Cosulich Schwartz said.
The layoffs will cut a quarter of the agency’s 825 positions — 146 workers and 59 vacant jobs. Bus operators will be most affected, with 88 losing their jobs. Cuts will save the district $ 13.5 million this fiscal year and $ 26.7 million a year until the positions are refilled. Delaying the layoffs a month will cost the district another $ 2 million.
“This is a horrible and difficult situation that puts our duties as directors at odds with our feelings of compassion for our employees who work hard in our transit and ferry divisions,” said Director Brian Sobel, chair of the finance committee who proposed the plan to postpone layoffs to Jan. 4, which passed.
Directors Dick Grosboll, Michael Theriault, Norman Yee, Sabrina Hernández and Bert Hill voted against the layoffs.
“I have continually and repeatedly made the point that I don’t believe we have exhausted possibilities for retaining employment of those members and workers,” Theriault said. “I still believe that is not the case.”
About 35 union leaders and district employees spoke against the layoffs at Friday’s meeting, with another 25 submitting written comments, making passionate pleas to the board to save jobs and health care. The stories shared included a driver who contracted COVID19, a single mother, a woman who gave birth two weeks ago and a ferry deckhand with three children who depend on his health care coverage.
“We have families that rely on us, and we are fearful every day when we leave our jobs, wondering if we are taking something back home,” said a bus operator who takes care of her 93yearold mother. “Please do not think of us as disposable employees.”
Another bus operator said he moved from Georgia to join the district, which he said is the best transit agency he’s ever worked for, but now worries how he will pay his mortgage.
“Layoffs have kept many of us in a constant state of stress,” he said. “For me, getting laid off would be devastating.”
Shane Weinstein, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1575, which represents about 250 bus operators, said the union has been working on options since Sept. 11, when it learned layoffs might be an option, and had agreed to furloughs.
“As a union president, I need to find a way to salvage health care benefits during a global health crisis,” Weinstein told The Chronicle.
Weinstein and others Friday pushed the district to come up with other solutions, including tapping into $ 219 million in capital reserves, at least to tide the agency over until January to see whether another relief bill may come out of Washington.
Many took offense that Mulligan repeatedly said bus operators “for whom there is no work” were still getting paid, arguing they are working hard and only a handful were sent home every day.
Theriault said that although most of the capital reserves are “untouchable” for operating expenses, there is a small portion that can be used, although it wouldn’t fill the fiscal hole entirely. Even with the layoffs, the district will spend down its emergency funds and operating reserves — and needs to find even more money — to make ends meet.
In the same meeting, the board voted 141 for a 10% pay cut for management and directors, who receive a $ 50 stipend per meeting, for the next six months. Director James Mastin voted no after his motion to cut pay by 20% until 75% of eliminated staff are reinstated and cut directors’ pay by 90% did not pass. Commenters criticized management for not sacrificing more of their higher salaries. The cuts will save the district around $ 440,000.
The $ 2.1 million severance package includes four months of medical benefits and either four weeks of severance pay or $ 600 a week for 10 weeks. The board document said that the district hopes “the separation from employment due to these layoffs will not be long in duration and employees will be recalled as soon as demand returns and the economy reopens more fully.”