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Many of BART's 355,000 daily commuters are still unaware that the agency might go on strike next week, which would cause quite a meltdown throughout the Bay Area.
Five unions representing 3,000 BART employees are currently in talks with BART over the management's proposals for solving its projected $250 million budget deficit over the next four years. BART is hoping to cut labor costs by $100 million by asking workers to foot more of the bill on their benefits and pension packages and by possibly implementing a four-year wage freeze.
The unions laid a smaller cost-cutting proposal on the table, but when neither side budged last night after a nine-hour negotiation, the Amalgamated Transit Union or ATU, which represents about 1,000 train operators and station agents, approved and authorized their union to strike. It would be the first BART strike in twelve years.
Commuters are urged to carpool, take a transbay bus, or ride the ferry if the strike does happen. Check the Transit 511 Bart Disruption page for updates and suggested transit alternatives.
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er...not a great time to be striking. Some nurses were picketing the other day because the bilingual ones wanted to be paid extra for unpaid translations. Er what now? Should taller people be paid more because they can reach things on high shelves? Over 10% unemployment and people feel comfortable enough to strike. Bizarro.
If they strike on July 1st, hell will come.
Think about it:
-Muni is raising prices.
-AC Transit is raising prices, including Transbay.
-And the Giants are having a big weekend series with fireworks on Friday the 3rd.
Fire them. With unemployment over 10% in CA, there are plenty of people who will replace them especially after news reports that they get $4,000/mo in benefits above and beyond salaries. Amazing.
Wow. so 355K people a day use BART?
The infrastructure is already built. Are you telling me that they're bleeding dry and have no money but they transport 355K riders a day???
At $5 for an average 1 way ticket, that's nearly 2 million dollars a day in revenue!
FYI almost every public transportation system operates in the red and needs government subsidies. If it wasn't subsidized BART would probably be one line going from Berkeley to Civic Center.
Indeed, BART is one of the best transit operators in the world with respect to recovering expenses at the fare box, about 60% I believe. But to break even, BART would still need to almost double its fares.
Here we go again, people slamming hard working folks for having good benefits.
It's a pretty fair thing to do when you're intelligent, college-educated, and unemployed. From our perspective it often comes off as a bit greedy and self-centered. Especially when your strike is occurring during a serious recession with significant unemployment and is poised to hurt a lot of people in order to show how important it is that you don't have a slightly higher co-pay or four year wage freeze.
It's not a fight over being abused, overworked, massively unpaid or anything of serious substance either. Sometimes strikes are entirely defensible and sometimes they just come off as a bit petty from a rather well-paid group when plenty of other people are struggling just to get their foot in the door so they can simply get by.
Well, here's the thing: a strike authorization vote rarely means a strike will definitely happen, and it usually doesn't even mean the employees WANT to strike. BART's employee unions are, I am certain, well aware of the economy--and public perception, which I have no doubts BART is also aware of.
For being so intelligent and college-educated (apparently the kind of people who deserve. good benefits?), it never seems to occur to people here that BART itself has no problem whatsoever perpetuating strike talk.
As far as "greedy and self-centered," I'd be awfully curious as to how much of their benefits package BART now wants them to pick up before making those pronouncements--how much "slightly higher" are we talking? You double that, and it's a de facto near 2% paycut for the average BART employee right off the top. And a four-year wage freeze is not something to shake a stick at, either, considering how the COL increases on an average of about 3.5% a year in the Bay Area.
The fact of the matter is the public isn't necessarily getting all the facts here but doesn't seem to acknowledge that the BART spin-machine is cycling on full-throttle. I'm not saying I'd support a strike, but I support the union's right to wield that power.
I'd take a 2% pay cut and a four year wage freeze in a heartbeat. Over here in the private sector thousands of people a week are taking a 100% pay cut and when they do find a job will probably make 25% less than they did before and take five years to get back to where they were. We'd strke but, oh look, we have no union. And one more thing, we pay for 100% of our health insurance, always have, always will.
And any of that's the BART people's fault how? I'm sorry you're not unionized.
The situation is this: I have heard absolutely nothing that the BART employees refuse to concede certain aspects, financial and otherwise, of their contract. I haven't heard anything about seeking gains. Right now it seems to be about what sacrifices they as employees have to make versus those of the organization, and it's a valid argument for both sides.
Right now they're both playing out their part in the media, and of course in this economy it's easier for BART to play the part.
Paid for by tax dollars and fares.
Do you support a fare increase to maintain these benefits? Because that is what will happen when they inevitably settle.