For those who though the Bay Area's transit labor woes were settled when an agreement was signed last month: think again. BART's board of directors has ordered managers to reopen negotiations after they realized a key concession had been overlooked.
A provision allowing transit workers to take six weeks of paid family leave was mistakenly left in an agreement workers made with BART last month, claims the transit agency.
"BART officials said they were worried the provision could cost the agency as much as $44 million over four years," reports Rong-Gong Lin II. "BART’s board of directors met late Friday in closed session to order its managers to return to the bargaining table with the unions."
"Union officials said they were stunned by BART’s action," adds Lin. "The president of the BART professional chapter of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, Deslar Patten, said both BART and the unions agreed on the tentative wording on the family leave provision back in July."
At this time, it sounds like all parties are interested in resolving the matter without resorting to additional strikes.
FULL STORY: BART says its negotiators signed wrong tentative labor contract

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