Bay Area Avoids BART Strike

A last-minute agreement in Wednesday’s early hours barely avoided a commuter rail strike that had threatened to tie knots around a Bay Area region that relies heavily on public transportation.

After days of nonstop negotiations, officials from the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, or BART, reached a tentative agreement with leaders of two unions, averting a strike that had been set for midnight Wednesday.

BART officials say the tentative pact addresses the transit district’s $100-million, four-year deficit without raising fares.

Officials announced the deal at 3 a.m., just 40 minutes before the first trains were scheduled to depart for the morning commuter rush.

News that a strike has been averted -- at least for now -- was welcomed by many. The system serves more than 300,000 riders a day.

“We are pleased to announce we have reached a tentative agreement that is good for riders, good for our employees and good for BART,” Joel Keller, president of BART’s Board of Directors, said in a statement. “We are confident the agreement, when ratified by the unions’ members, will put BART on sound financial footing now and for the future.”

For days, BART officials had warned commuters over station public address systems of the possibility of a strike. The unions represent 2,300 of BART’s 2,700 employees.

Big employers and building managers in San Francisco’s financial district, meanwhile, had urged workers to telecommute and carpool. Some downtown workers left Tuesday toting enough work to last them weeks.

Meanwhile, other transit agencies had stepped in to improve and reroute bus and train service, giving East Bay residents a way into the city through Marin County and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Enterprise Rent-A-Car was working with regional transit authorities to offer discounts to temporary carpoolers.

Neither management nor union leaders would release details of the proposed agreement, which is expected to be ratified by workers within 10 days.

Earlier, management had proposed a 2% wage increase each year over the last two years of a four-year contract. Another proposal called for employees to pay $150 per month for family health benefits, up from $25 a month.

Union leaders had proposed health payments of $75 a month and a wage increase of 2% to 4% a year over a three-year contract.

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Times staff writer Lee Romney contributed to this report.