Gov. Brown Considering 'Cooling Off' Request from AC Transit

By Bay City News

As Gov. Jerry Brown considers an AC Transit request for a 60-day "cooling off" period, the bus agency's general manager is asking union leaders to engage in further negotiations to try to avoid a strike that could begin as early as Thursday.

In a letter to Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192 President Yvonne Williams, General Manager David Armijo wrote, "I believe it is in the district's best interest for our two respective negotiating teams to meet prior the strike deadline to explore any ideas you may have to advance an agreement and halt a possible strike." Armijo said, "Please contact me at your earliest convenience to discuss a time and location where we may renew our negotiating process."

Williams, whose union represents about 1,800 bus drivers, mechanics, dispatchers, clerical and other workers, has not returned calls for comment. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Gov. Brown, Evan Westrup, said today that Brown is considering AC Transit's request for a cooling-off period but hasn't yet acted on it.

Westrup said the governor wouldn't simply order a 60-day cooling-off period but rather would appoint a board to investigate the labor dispute over a seven-day period and the board would report its findings to the governor. If Brown decided that a 60-day cooling-off period would be appropriate, he would then ask a court to order one, Westrup said.

A similar process was followed when BART management sought and was granted a cooling-off period in its labor dispute this summer. AC Transit, which logs about 200,000 daily bus rides in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, has reached a contract agreement with union leaders twice previously -- most recently on Oct. 1 -- but union members have rejected both.

AC Transit management says it is offering employees a 9.5 percent pay increase over three years. According to management, that offer would give employees an average of an additional $5,529 in annual income even after their medical contributions are factored in.

Referring to the possibility that workers could go on strike on Thursday, AC Transit spokesman Clarence Johnson said Tuesday, "We were hoping we wouldn't be in this position." Johnson said a strike by AC Transit workers "would severely impact life in the Bay Area as we know it," and if it occurred at the same time as a strike by BART employees, it would be "catastrophic." He said the last time AC Transit employees went on strike was in 1977.