BART Board Ratifies Union Contracts.News Editors OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 19, 2001 BART Board President Willie B. Kennedy today announced that the transit district's board of directors has voted to ratify the new agreements with its two largest unions, Amalgamated Transit Union The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada, representing workers in the transit system and other industries. The ATU was founded in 1892, and today has more than 180,000 members in more than 273 local unions in 46 states and 9 (ATU (ADSL Transceiver Unit) A device that provides ADSL modulation of the telephone line. The device at the telco side is the ATU-C (Central), which is a line card plugged into the DSLAM. ) Local 1555, representing over 800 train operators and station agents, and Service Employees International Union (SEIU SEIU Service Employees International Union SEIU Special Education Intake Unit SEIU Secondary Education Interdisciplinary Unit SEIU Software Engineering Institute Union ) Local 790, representing over 1700 maintenance, clerical and professional personnel. "This means that high quality BART service will continue for our riders without interruption," Kennedy said. Both ATU and SEIU voted to approve the new contract last night. Key features of the agreement call for a four-year contract, an increase in base pay of 6 percent in the first year, 5 percent in the second year, 5 percent in the third year, and 6 percent in the fourth year. The agreement also calls for a payment equivalent to 3.5 percent of the employees' base pay be made into a separate pension fund. This payment is made possible by the Public Employee Retirement System surplus. In the second year of the contract an extra holiday for Martin Luther King's birthday will be added, and bereavement Bereavement Definition Bereavement refers to the period of mourning and grief following the death of a beloved person or animal. The English word bereavement leave will increase from three to five days. BART General Manager Thomas Margro said that along with the economic package this new agreement achieves, some work rule changes that would bring about important efficiencies for the District, primarily dealing with absenteeism ab·sen·tee·ism n. 1. Habitual failure to appear, especially for work or other regular duty. 2. The rate of occurrence of habitual absence from work or duty. . Over the next three months an Operations Improvement Committee will address and resolve other efficiency issues, including increased flexibility in carrying out work (dripline), improving grievance hearing procedures and reducing grievance backlogs. He said the new contract will be retroactive Having reference to things that happened in the past, prior to the occurrence of the act in question. A retroactive or retrospective law is one that takes away or impairs vested rights acquired under existing laws, creates new obligations, imposes new duties, or attaches a to July 1 of this year. |
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