BART Critic Says Agency Needs to Do More to Win Bond Support

An East Bay lawmaker who has been a leading critic of BART and its unions says a tentative contract is a good start toward restoring public confidence in the agency — but he wants to see more before he drops his opposition to a BART bond measure expected to appear on the November ballot.

The proposed labor deal announced by BART General Manager Grace Crunican and union leaders on Monday would give workers a 10.8 percent wage increase in a contract stretching from mid-2017 through mid-2021.

“I think the agreement has a lot of positive elements to it,” state Sen. Steve Glazer told KQED’s Tara Siler during a Tuesday morning interview at BART’s Walnut Creek station. “Number one, that we’re not going to endure strikes for at least five years. That’s a big deal — strikes are too debilitating and too impactful on the Bay Area.”

Glazer was elected to the Legislature in the wake of his so far unsuccessful campaign, prompted by a pair of BART strikes in 2013, to bar the agency’s union workers from walking off the job.

Glazer said in February he’d fight a bond measure BART says it needs to upgrade its system, arguing the agency’s 2013 contracts and subsequent pay raises for managers were fiscally irresponsible. Tuesday, he said he’s not a fan of the most widely reported provision in the tentative labor agreement: the four-year pay increase.

“I think the compensation is higher than I would have negotiated,” Glazer said. “But I respect the collective bargaining process and recognize that compromises have to be made.”

But Glazer said the proposed contract has not convinced him to abandon his promise to oppose BART’s expected $3.5 billion bond measure. He said he’d like to see the agency take additional steps to prove to the public it’s serious about fiscal accountability.

“One, I’d like them to not do a ‘me-too’ clause” that would award raises for managers similar to those given to the union workforce. “Those choices should be based on merit and an individual evaluation — not to do what they did 3½ years ago, which is to give the same giant raises to all of the managers.”

Glazer said he also wants BART to undertake a salary study “to show us the compensation that workers are making are comparable to the marketplace.”

Finally, the former Orinda mayor said he wants the agency “to show us the plan to pay their retirement costs. There’s a big retirement overhang in BART, and I don’t think it’s clear how that’s going to be paid out.”