BART cannot afford reckless labor contract
It’s mind-boggling that BART directors plan to ratify today a new labor agreement that locks in excessive employee benefits for another three years at the same time the district faces horrendous budget shortfalls.
The deal, which would last through June 30, 2024, would continue the sweetheart terms of a contract reached in 2013 after a strike shut down the system. Those terms were renewed with a contract extension in 2016. Now, with that extension due to expire next year, the district and its union workers have agreed to another.
Oh sure, BART officials are touting the deal because it ties any salary increases to significant improvements in ridership. But it’s going to take a lot more than that to put the transit system’s finances back on the rails. With ridership plummeting to less than 15% of normal because of the pandemic, the district faces a combined projected $210 million shortfall for the current and next fiscal years.
If ever there was a time to rein in excessive benefits and align BART compensation with other metro transit agencies across the country, this is it. It might actually help BART reduce the number of workers it has to lay off.
But BART officials have once again negotiated a contract during an election season without bothering to do their basic homework, starting with a salary survey that would be standard at most public agencies and private companies of its size.
This is the point in the editorial where we would usually say that BART directors should reject the deal. But we’re under no illusions: The fix is in. All but two of the nine board members depend on the unions that represent BART workers to get elected.
So, it’s not surprising that BART officials waited until late afternoon on Thanksgiving Eve to quietly release the details of the new labor agreement as part of the board’s agenda packet for today’s meeting.
Bay Area riders and taxpayers should be outraged. We’re talking about residents in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties. And now, with the opening of the Berryessa and Milpitas stations, you can add Santa Clara County. Congratulations, South Bay residents: Now that BART has started serving Santa Clara County, this labor deal affects you, too — although you have no representation on the board approving it.
Under Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s agreement with BART, VTA pays for the rail service based in part on labor costs. Thus, South Bay taxpayers are helping foot the bill for BART’s profligate ways.
To understand just how costly the system has become, consider, for example, that train operators and station agents make a top-scale $84,623 a year after just three years on the job. Then most BART workers receive generous benefits and contract provisions such as:
• Retirement: Workers and BART split the cost of pensions, which provide an employee who retires at age 60 after 30 years on the job with 60%- 67% of their salary (depending on what year they started work). In addition, BART contributes to a tax-deferred retirement account for workers. For top-scale train operators, the contribution is about $2,700 a year.
• Health care coverage: Workers and most retirees receive full family health care coverage for $150 a month, regardless of the number of dependents.
• Work week: Train operators, station agents and other members of the Amalgamated Transit Union work only 37.5 hours per week, not
40. Workers are paid for an eight-hour workday, but that includes a 30-minute paid lunch.
• Leave time: BART workers receive up to six weeks paid vacation annually, of which they can cash out a week each year. They receive 12 days of sick leave and can apply unused portions toward their pension service credit or cash it out. Plus, they receive 13 paid holidays.
• Strike protections: BART workers may strike after a contract runs out. But the transit agency is effectively prohibited during the contract from training management workers to run the trains if employees walk off the job.
Most of these are the same benefits that were in effect in the 2013 contract and the 2016 extension. And now they will continue with the new extension to 2024.
This deal is premature. The current contract extension doesn’t expire until next year. BART directors should have waited until they knew more about future ridership and coronavirus relief funding.
Right now, this is an agreement the district cannot afford.