Willie Brown drives train on new Muni deal

After months of heated negotiations, a three-day operator sick out and an exchange of words at board meetings, management and the union that represents Muni operators finally have a tentative labor contract agreement — thanks to former Mayor Willie Brown.

Ed Reiskin, the City’s transportation director, said Monday at a special San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board meeting that, with the assistance from Mayor Ed Lee, Brown helped mediate a contract between management and the union that both sides could agree on:

“Happy to report with the assistance of Mayor Lee, that we were able to bring Mayor Willie Brown into the process to mediate within the city’s charter collective bargaining process — an agreement with Transport Workers Union Local 250-A.”

Brown also helped mediate an agreement with transit fare inspectors.

Reiskin said details of the agreement would be made public by the end of the business day online, but say there was some changes in the wages, retirement swap and changes in the term of the contract.

He said union officials plan to put the contract for vote by union members on July 7. If ratified by union members, the SFMTA board will vote on the new labor agreement at their July 15 meeting.

Reiskin said he was very grateful for Brown’s work who stepped in about two weeks ago. He said Brown was:

“Someone who understands The City, understands labor, was able to see what the underlying interests were and get to an agreement for both parties.”

He said Brown definitely played a key role getting this agreement with union leaders:

“He was certainly the man here. I do believe it would not have happened without him.”

Despite the SFMTA board not voting on a new labor contract agreement before July 1, the new agreement will be retroactive to July 1.

Union members were not present at the meeting, but Local 250-A did release a statement last Friday saying that there was a tentative agreement between management and union officials.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.