BART Trains Will Run Thursday As Negotiations Continue

BART trains will run on normal schedule again on Thursday as negotiations in the transit agency's labor dispute continue.

A federal mediator made that announcement about 10:20 p.m. Wednesday outside the building in Oakland where BART management and representatives from Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 had been talking behind closed doors since 10 a.m.

The two sides also negotiated from Tuesday afternoon until 1 a.m. Wednesday after talking until 5:30 a.m. the previous morning.

No details have been released on the contract proposals that are on the table.

Since Monday night, BART and the two unions have been negotiating, then announcing late at night there would be no strike the next day.

At the moment, the unions have not set a strike deadline since withdrawing their threat of walking off the job at midnight Monday night.

Over the weekend, BART officials made what they called a "last, best and final" contract offer. That proposal contained a 12 percent pay hike over four years.

On Sunday evening, the union made a counteroffer and talks have continued since then.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday blocked a threatened strike by AC Transit workers for up to seven days by appointing an investigative board to examine that labor dispute.