Benny Grush/Staff

Although BART management and labor unions failed to reach an agreement Thursday night, union leadership agreed to extend talks through the weekend, narrowly averting what would have been this year’s second BART strike.

In early August, San Francisco County Superior Court granted Gov. Jerry Brown’s request for a 60-day “cooling-off” period that barred BART employees from striking. This expired at the end of Thursday. If the two sides had failed to reach an agreement by then, BART employees could have gone on strike Friday, disrupting more than 400,000 daily commuters.

Talks between BART and labor unions are set to resume at 10 a.m. Friday. If an agreement is not reached this weekend, the unions could strike as early as Monday.

Negotiations earlier this week were stalled by various stumbling blocks as the parties sought to come to a consensus and avoid a repeat of the summer’s BART strike, which lasted from July 1 to 5.

On Tuesday night, unions and BART management were “very close” to an agreement, according to Des Patten, a spokesperson from Service Employees International Union Local 1021. However, negotiations fell through after BART management said there had been a miscommunication.

“That was an unfortunate situation,” Patten said. “We just told them, ‘You were at this point, and that’s where we expected you to be’ and what we were ready to talk about.”

One of the main points of contention during recent negotiations was an offer from BART to increase pay by 10 percent over four years, which unions said was insufficient.

“There’s no such thing as a 10 percent raise, because you first subtract the amount of money that will be used to pay for the pension, and then you subtract the amount that will be paid for medical,” Patten said. The service employees union also made “significant changes” to its wage offer during negotiations, he added.

On Thursday afternoon, BART spokesperson Jim Allison said BART management planned to present a new offer that was “greater than that 10 percent over four years.”

Previously, the two sides unofficially agreed on a plan to reimburse employees 72 cents for every $1 they contribute toward their pensions. The unions and BART management entered Thursday’s negotiations with this agreement tentatively in place, Allison said.

Another major issue discussed this week was safety measures in the workplace for BART employees, such as insufficient lighting and overgrown brush along tracks.

“Some areas of the tunnels are extremely dark, and you can’t see very well — it’s a danger for employees,” Patten said. “If something goes wrong and (patrons) have to evacuate the train, it’s very dark, and people could stumble and fall.”

Throughout this week, the two sides made progress on smaller, nonmonetary issues, including work regulations, according to Patten.

News editor Megan Messerly contributed to this report.

Contact Jessie Lau at jlau@dailycal.org.

The post 2nd BART strike of year narrowly averted; negotiations to continue Friday appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299 accused the university of intimidating patient-care employees by threatening them with disciplinary action during strikes over pension reform in May. On Sept. 12, the Public Employment Relations Board, a state agency that oversees collective bargaining pertaining to employees of California public schools, issued a complaint against the UC system on behalf of the union and began an investigation into the claims.

The university denies allegations that it created a coercive environment, as outlined in the complaint.

AFSCME’s vote to strike is not a response to failed negotiations or the UC system’s recent implementation of a revised pension plan but is a move to protest the treatment of UC employees, according to AFSCME communications director Todd Stenhouse.

“They (UC employees) have the right to be in a workplace free of intimidation and coercion,” Stenhouse said. “Our workers are very united right now — there is a lot of justified disgust about the way many of their colleagues have been treated.”

Should union members vote in favor of striking, AFSCME will proceed with coordinating a strike, Stenhouse said.

According the the PERB website, the board will issue a complaint regarding accusations of unfair practices if the agent reviewing the allegations “concludes that there are enough facts alleged that an unfair practice may have been committed.”

Both parties would then proceed to attend an informal conference, in which the agent would work with them to try to reach a mutually agreeable settlement. Should this fail, PERB would schedule a formal hearing, at which both parties would present their cases to an administrative law judge.

In a written response to the complaint, the university’s legal counsel calls AFSCME’s allegations “preposterous.”

The UC system said these accusations are part of the union’s efforts to blame the university for the low employee attendance during strikes in May, according to UC spokesperson Dianne Klein.

“They have a legal right to strike, and we wouldn’t interfere,” Klein said. “But no one wants to strike.”

On May 21, 97 percent of union members voted in favor of a strike. About 75 percent of employees, however, continued to work, according to Klein. She said a strike would be detrimental to university operations.

UC President Janet Napolitano plans to meet with AFSCME representatives but not as part of the collective bargaining process, Klein said.

“We are all university employees, and we need to work together,” Klein said. “We urge the union leadership to return to the bargaining table so we may negotiate a fair contract.”

Contact Jessie Lau at jlau@dailycal.org.

The post UC workers to vote on strike by end of month appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Although the WarnMe alert system drew some criticism in 2011 after many did not receive notification about a shooting at Haas School of Business, the campus’s multiple warning systems appear to have been utilized effectively during Monday’s power outage and explosion, campus officials said.

Campus police and officials used nearly all emergency systems in place to respond to the events — including WarnMe, the campus siren-and-PA system and the emergency phone line, which played a looped message with updates on the situation. Messages were also posted on the campus public affairs website, Facebook and Twitter pages, according to campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore.

UCPD sent four messages via WarnMe, said UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada.

After the explosion near California Hall about 6:40 p.m., a message went out at 6:50 p.m. telling recipients to evacuate campus immediately due to an emergency.

“We know that there will be situations where individuals maybe might get (WarnMe messages) late or not receive them,” Gilmore said. “We will be taking a close look at what worked and what needs to be improved.”

Gilmore encouraged students who did not receive text message alerts to update their information through the BearFacts website and choose text messaging as the preferred option for receiving emergency communication.

Senior Christophe Hansen-Estruch was studying at C.V. Starr East Asian Library when the campus initially lost power.

“There was this noise like a ‘bmf,’ and then all the lights went off,” he said.

After a few minutes of confusion, a library staff member went up each floor to inform students that there had been a power outage and that there was no immediate emergency, he said.

Hansen-Estruch also said he received an email from WarnMe, but because he did not sign up for text alerts, he received the warning much later.

UCPD used the campus PA system to send broadcasts instructing individuals to leave campus after the explosion occurred. Throughout the evening, police officers entered and checked campus buildings to ensure all individuals had been evacuated, Gilmore said.

The campus’s emergency systems effectively served their purpose, said UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode.

Although the residence halls did not need to be evacuated Monday night, the campus will work with city officials to find suitable areas for relocation in case the need arises in the future, said Amina Assefa, manager at the campus’s Office of Emergency Management.

“We would start looking for open spaces in the city of Berkeley and start directing people,” she said. “We would also use campus transportation services if we have to move people further away.”

Contact Jessie Lau at jlau@dailycal.org.

The post Campus emergency systems aided evacuations Monday night appeared first on The Daily Californian.

On Monday, after Congress failed to pass a spending bill that would have funded government operations for the current fiscal year, the nation entered its first government shutdown in 17 years, placing 800,000 federal employees on furlough as parts of the government closed the next day.

Although UC campuses continued to operate normally Tuesday, should the shutdown continue for a significant period of time, it could impact educational services, financial aid programs and health care, said UC spokesperson Brooke Converse.

“We might not be able to see the impacts right away,” Converse said. “Right now, we are just monitoring the situation. We want to make sure that funding to the university continues, and we will continue lobbying for things to help students.”

Student aid and loan services will also continue to function normally for now, according to a contingency plan by the U.S. Department of Education. A shutdown of operations beyond one week, however, would “severely curtail” funds given to school districts, colleges and universities, according to the plan.

Esther Gulli, UC Berkeley’s director of federal relations, said students who plan to study abroad or travel during winter break may experience delays in passport and visa processing.

Additionally, the UC system will not receive new research grants during the shutdown, Converse said.

National research facilities managed by the university, such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will continue operating for the time being, according to lab officials. If the shutdown is prolonged, however, impacts to programs and employees will be “unavoidable,” and operations will have to adapt based on available funding and federal guidance, said Jon Weiner, manager of communications and media relations at the Berkeley lab.

Policy experts say the funding impasse could lead to a more pressing argument over the federal debt limit, which the government is projected to reach Oct. 17.

Robert Reich, a campus professor of public policy and a former U.S. Secretary of Labor, said that if the debt ceiling is not lifted, the economy could suffer substantially.

“Everything from student loans to aid to education to the full faith and credit of the United States is potentially at issue,” Reich said in an email.

Reich said that he expects the shutdown to continue through the debt ceiling’s deadline, at which point he believes the president will instruct the Treasury to continue paying the nation’s bill.

Larry Magid, a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, echoed Reich’s sentiments, and said that the national and international economies will be greatly affected if the federal government default on its debt obligations.

“My students in particular are very focused on their job prospects,” Magid said. “The job market is just recovering, and this is threatened by the ongoing crisis.”

John Ellwood, a professor at the public policy school, also said a default on the national debt could cause economic chaos.

“Markets will go crazy, and interest rates will be way up,” Ellwood said. “The U.S. will lose its economic position, and the economy will take a big hit.”

Contact Jessie Lau at jlau@dailycal.org

The post UC campuses face limited short-run impacts after federal government shutdown appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The move comes after a string of failures in the negotiation process between the university and the workers’ labor union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299. The university and union entered negotiations in October. The union’s service workers — which include custodians, food-service workers and gardeners employed by the university — have worked without a contract since February. Having exhausted the option of bargaining, the university is legally allowed to move forward with this plan, according to a UC press release.

Service workers from AFSCME 3299 will now be subject to a two-tiered pension plan. Employees previously contributed 5 percent of their pay toward their pension, but those hired prior to July 1 must now contribute 6.5 percent. Those hired on or after July 1 must give 7 percent. The university will also contribute 12 percent of employee pay to workers’ pensions — an increase of 2 percent.

“Really, we prefer to solve these things at the table with our unions,” said UC spokesperson Shelly Meron. ”(Increasing employee contributions) is something that we have to do to make sure that our pension program is healthy in the long term. We couldn’t just sit by and do nothing. We had to make some changes.”

But AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger, who works as a gardener at UC Berkeley, said the university’s offer exacerbates everyday challenges and essentially equates to a pay cut for her and other workers.

“What this imposition does is it cuts at least $50 to $70 from low-wage workers’ paychecks every single month,” Lybarger said. “That equals a tank of gas to get to work, cost of parking at work, putting money away for our kids’ Christmas presents, and it’s the cost of a prescription.”

In July, the university imposed these pension reforms on more than 12,000 patient-care employees, who were also members of AFSCME 3299. Lybarger said the union has asked to meet with incoming UC President Janet Napolitano but did not say whether the union planned to strike.

Paul Roose, a state-appointed mediator brought in during the collective bargaining process, supported the two-tiered pension plan in a report issued in August. He called the bargaining process between the parties “dysfunctional.”

ASUC Senator Briana Mullen said the university’s decision threatens students’ rights to negotiate with the university and said she plans to write an ASUC bill asking the university reconsider its options.

“It’s really atrocious to think that the university can move forward without compromising,” Mullen said. “Students themselves have a stake in this game. They are affected by the way UC is sidestepping organized labor on campus.”

Contact Libby Rainey and Jessie Lau at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

The post UC to implement final offer on service-worker wages, pension plan appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/Senior Staff

UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium renovation team received an award Friday for the innovative engineering and architectural design of the stadium’s new press box.

The awards program, conducted annually by the American Institute of Steel Construction, recognizes outstanding engineering and architectural achievements in structural steel projects in the United States. Out of more than 100 entries, the Memorial Stadium press box was one of eight winners.

The 375-foot-long press box appears to float above the western portion of the stadium, supported by four concrete cores and columns. Built to hold about 1,700 people, the two-story structure contains a press and operations center and a club space with sky seating.

The box was a part of the greater Memorial Stadium retrofit, which secured the stadium against damage from earthquakes that it is exposed to due to its location directly above the Hayward fault line. The site’s instability made it a particularly challenging location for construction.

Larry Flynn, director of the awards program — dubbed the Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture With Structural Steel — said judges had not predetermined the number of winners and gave the award only to projects deemed worthy of recognition.

The judges’ panel, consisting of eight design and construction industry professionals, also assessed projects on sustainability and team collaboration. This is the first time a UC Berkeley project has received this award, according to Flynn.

“It was a very difficult process of doing that because of the limitations they had on the size of the cranes they could use, and the team really had to work together to do that,” Flynn said.

The press box’s ability to move independently of the rest of the stadium allows it to dissipate seismic energy, according to Christopher Petteys, a senior associate at Forell/Elsesser Engineers who worked on the project.

Architects at HNTB Architecture, a principal designer of the stadium renovation, said they were inspired by the legacy of John Galen Howard, whose works include Memorial Stadium, the Campanile and Sather Gate.

“If this was John Galen Howard’s job to do back then, maybe he would have basically built a canopy over the west facade,” said Joe Diesko, HNTB’s project manager. “That canopy probably would have had glass in it, and that was the start of a big idea.”

After the idea was born, architects and engineers went to work designing a press box that would stand strong during earthquakes and would not interfere with the original stadium wall, which is a historic monument.

The press box cost $40 million, and the entire stadium renovation and new student athletic center cost $445 million.

“You know, there’s a lot of criticism about this kind of addition to stadiums because it always seems to be about money, but I was really impressed,” said Margaret Crawford, a professor of architecture at UC Berkeley.

Contact Jessie Lau and Daniel Tutt at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

The post Memorial Stadium renovation team wins award for press box design appeared first on The Daily Californian.