Yet again this morning, like yesterday and the day before and the day before that, there is no BART strike, but there could still be one. Everyone's been very mature, and negotiations continued late into Wednesday evening with the announcement that trains would run despite there still being no deal between BART management and its unions. We have federal mediators to thank for the ongoing train service, and mediator George Cohen once again emerged to give the exact same announcement last night at 10:30 as he did the previous night without offering any insight about how talks were going.

The uncertainty this week has led to lower ridership, and BART management has making sure to let the media know that every day of a strike threat is costing the system $225,000 because of all the vendors they've had to contract with to provide bus service in the event of a strike.

Union spokeswoman Antonette Bryant praised Cohen for setting "a different kind of tone" in the negotiations, but both sides were sworn to silence as to where they are in their bargaining.

As of Monday, when management said they had offered their "best and final" offer, the deal on the table was a 3% annual wage increase (12% total), with employees contributing 9.5% more to their health insurance, and 4% to their pensions.

[Chron]
[Business Times]