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Talk about BART Commuters were relieved to learn this morning that Bay Area Rapid Transit averted a walkout when its two largest unions negotiated past a strike deadline to reach a deal with management that gives rank-and-file worker s a 7 percent raise but triples their health care costs. BART announced the agreement just before 3 am, ending more than four da ys of round-the-clock negotiations. Both sides said the proposal allows BART, through June 30, 2009, to eliminate a projected $100 million defic it largely attributed to the rising cost of retiree medical benefits. "We had to deal with some very difficult and complex issues," said Tom Ma rgro, BART's general manager. This contract is fair to our employees and protects the interests of ou r riders." Terms of the agreement were not officially disclosed pending ratification by the unions, but BART officials provided details to The Chronicle. Workers will receive a $300 lump sum payment in January. There will be no pay raises in the current fiscal year, which began Friday, but the rank and file will see pay hikes of 2 percent in fiscal 2006 and 2007, follo wed by a 3 percent increase in fiscal 2008. But they'll also see their c ontributions to health care jump from $25 to $75 a month beginning in Ja nuary, and rise by 3 percent annually each fiscal year beginning July 1, 2006. The unions agreed to let BART change several job descriptions under a $40 million effort to modernize such systems as payroll and inventory. BART says the new technology will save $33 million between 2006 and 2009, wi th $13 million of the savings going to retrain workers. The unions will be permitted to challenge any changes during arbitration. The agency also will rehire 11 workers laid off earlier this year. Union representatives were pleased with the accord, which gives workers m ore money while giving BART greater leeway to modernize. "We are happy that we have been able to work out a reasonable, tentative agreement," said Harold Brown, the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1555, which with Service Employees International Local 790 represents 2,300 BART employees. "Our primary concern has always been ri der safety and service. We are glad that riders will not be inconvenienc ed by a strike." The last-minute settlement came little more than an hour before the train s that carry some 310,000 riders daily were set to shut down, a turn of events that would have thrown the region into commute chaos. Instead, things went off without a hitch, though fewer people -- perhaps not aware the strike had been averted -- boarded the trains this morning than usual and traffic over the bridge was a bit heavier than normal. "Thank God I could take BART," said April Paraiso, a 22-year-old college student from Vallejo. She had planned to carpool to work in downtown Oak land, but when she drove to the casual carpool pick-up spot, she learned the BART strike had been called off. There were plenty of smiling faces at BART stations around the region. said Richard Stingily, a BAR T supervisor at the Oakland 12th Street Station. The deal came after union leaders extended their strike deadline from 12: 01 am Wednesday, first until 12:30 am and then for another hour, as management mulled final offer from workers. Negotiators met for about 26 hours over the weekend and were at it almost continuously starting at 1 0 am Monday. But not everyone got the news this morning, and Johnson said BART ridersh ip was down about 10 percent. Traffic on Bay Area freeways was heavier t han normal as many people took to the highways believing BART was shut d own. "Traffic is very heavy this morning," said Caltrans spokesman Jeff Weiss, noting that traffic over the Bay Bridge was thicker than usual. "In pre paration of the BART strike, it seems a lot of people made a commitment to drive and carried it out." Julia Johnson of San Leandro took an AC Transit Transbay bus rather than the train to the Financial District an d found the trip was cheaper and more scenic, even if it took five minut es longer than BART. "I believe I've found a better way to commute," she said this morning. Th e 2,300 unionized BART workers returned to work this morning when trains resumed running shortly after 4 am The threat of 830 train operators and station agents and 1,450 maintenanc e and clerical workers walking off their jobs Wednesday morning sent the Bay Area's other transit agencies scrambling to plan how to absorb the 310,000 current BART riders who would be left stranded. As in the six-day strike in 1997, the transit district was not planning t o run trains during a strike. In that strike, morning backups at the Bay Bridge started an hour early and ended 30 minutes later than normal. BART, the Bay Area's largest transit district, faces mounting budget prob lems that it says are partly the result of increases in the cost of bene fits for current and retired employees. BART has already approved raisin g fares, cutting senior discounts and levying parking fees at 10 of the East Bay's busiest stations to help balance the budget.
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