OAKLAND -- Bay Area Rapid Transit District directors voted unanimously Thursday to approve a new four-year contract for the agency's union employees.

The approval was considered a formality because BART directors had previously indicated that they would approve the contract agreement, which was approved by union and management negotiators in the early morning hours of July 6, barely averting a strike that union workers had threatened to begin that day.

BART unions approved the new contract on July 19. The transit district directors originally were scheduled to approve the pact on July 28, but final approval was postponed several times.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson said that management wanted to take time to make sure all the details in the contract were ironed out before it was signed.

The contract calls for employees to have their wages frozen in the first year of the contract and then get a total of 7 percent in wage increases the last three years. The contract also calls for employees to increase their monthly medical coverage premiums from $25 to $75.