BART officials and unions reached a tentative agreement late Monday evening, bringing a four day strike to a close and returning the daily commute of about 400,000 riders back to normal.
With more than 2,000 employees heading back to work, limited BART service resumed 4 a.m. Tuesday and full service is expected to be restored in the afternoon.
The tentative agreement prioritizes rider and worker safety, said Des Patten, president of SEIU 1021’s BART Professional Chapter in a press conference.
The parties had already settled economic issues, such as wage increases, pensions and medical coverage before unions went on strike Friday.
“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for,” said Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom outside the Downtown office. “This is a reminder, this weekend, that this is about people, and a lot of people’s lives have been impacted by what’s happened … but mark my word, if there’s any lesson learned, it’s that this can never happen again.”
Details about the agreement will not be released until the union leaders have had a chance to communicate with their members, BART General Manager Grace Crunican said. BART Board of Directors and members of the unions can ratify and need to vote on the tentative agreement before it takes effect.
“This offer was more than we wanted to pay, but it is also a new path in terms of our partnership with workers,” Crunican said.
On Sunday evening, SEIU 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, two unions which represent a majority of BART employees, offered another proposal that allow for new technology at work but prevent changes to work rules that would “lead to unsafe conditions.”
Unions and BART officials had already been heavily debating about safety issues when a train accident on a section of track between the Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill stations that resulted in two BART workers’ deaths occurred on Saturday about 1:53 p.m.
One day into the strike, a four-car train, which was operating for training and maintenance purposes, struck and killed two employees, who were later identified as unionized BART employee Christopher Sheppard and outside contractor Laurence Daniels. They had been inspecting what an earlier train worker reported as a dip in the tracks.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently heading the investigation into the accident.
According to NTSB Investigator-In-Charge Jim Southworth, six employees were on the train, which was moving at 60 to 70 miles per hour, at the time of the accident. The operator was a trainee and had held other positions with BART, he said.
BART employees previously went on strike in July, which lasted for four and a half days and ended when union members and BART representatives reached a temporary 30-day agreement. Following the end of the 30-days, another BART strike was narrowly averted when Gov. Jerry Brown stepped in and requested a 60-day cooling-off period.
Daphne Chen is a news editor. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.
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