SFist Tonight
Week Around the Ists
SFist Tonight
Remember the BART strike of September 1997? Which lasted an entire week? Turning into a nightmare. Well, what with BART officially announcing a strike, you should get ready for more of the same come Sunday night.
Here are some alternatives to BART:
charter buses
Zipcar
CityCar Share
rideshare
telecommute
ferry ride
bicycle
walk
call-in sick
curl up in fetal position, cry
We'll have more updates on alternative methods. Stay tuned.
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Nice call downplaying this a couple of days ago SFist.
OK -- I admit, I've been the one *yawning* and *double yawning* over this ongoing story (since mid-June mind you), but when the threat comes and goes three times it becomes a little bit of a case of crying wolf, from a blogger's perspective. I will get my comeuppance if this all holds true by Sunday night. The fact that we're still three days away means three more days of presumed backroom negotiation in which someone calls someone's bluff, or meets in the middle and tries to stem the horrible press and ill feeling this will all bring. The fact that they've put off striking this long (the workers have been contract-less since July 1) makes it sound a bit like a bluff, no? In the meantime, please enjoy more videos like this one. I am sorry that I doubted your cajones, Amalgamated Transit Union...
Don't take it personal man, I'm just breaking balls. A part of me thought it was a load of bullshit when I heard this come up again as well. Hopefully it will turn out to be another wolf crying because things will be SHITTY come Monday if there's no BART service.
Thing I don't get is if the other two unions can come to terms with BART management, why can't ATU?
How does it feel to be the most hated man in the Bay Area right now Jesse Hunt?
DOH
if you're in the east bay and need to get to sf, good luck bicycling across that bridge!
there is the caltrans bike shuttle but as it only holds 14 people and their bikes, and will be in the same clusterfuck as the rest of the cars, it's not going to be reliable either.
yet another reason to build a bike lane on the second half of the span to go with the new bike lane on the new bridge!
signed,
east bay to west bay commuter
My guess is traffic will be at a complete standstill 24x7 and you won't have any problem lane splitting all the way. Worth a try.
Let's all go on strike and meet back up after Labor Day. Deal?
All they have to do is let people drive through the BART tunnels.
I'll be shuttling people back and forth on the yacht. BYOB.
BART Stike!
I just hope this slows the traffic down. On my walk home from work today, I was almost hit THREE TIMES by people running red lights.
One of these days I'm going to buy a shotgun, and cock that sucker every time I hit a crosswalk.
AC Transit FTW. Pray for an MCI bus.
I support the strike. Who ever heard of a worker having to pay into their own pension fund? What is this, Zimbabwe?
Oh, yeah. Poor babies who will get pensions. Meanwhile I and everyone else who's unemployed or underemployed are just trying to pay the rent, never mind our pay into our own self-funded pension programs (called IRAs).
Please stop whining. Just because you don't have a pension plan (or a job) doesn't mean the benefits BART workers fought hard to get (and now, to keep) are any less important. Everyone has a bunch of shit on their plate now, so we'd appreciate it if you smiled and ate your share. k thx.
Aren't they fighting a wage/benefits freeze, not a reduction?
Yeah, that's my problem: everyone has "shit on their plate" as you so eloquently put it--except for the BART workers who: 1) have a job, 2) have a very well compensated job, 3) have a pension (!), and 4) are still whining about the situation.
Everyone everywhere, except for maybe California government workers, pays into their own pension fund, even for a defined benefit pension, which no one except California government employees can get anymore. (Not even Federal employees, except of course elected officials, can get a defined benefit plan anymore.) My wife is a federal employee under the old, generous CSRS plan, and she makes a monthly payment of several hundred dollars. (Of course it is only a fraction of what is actually required to pay out her benefit.)
I have *never* has a pension plan (other than a 401k) and no one I have every worked with in tech has ever had a pension plan. So when BART tries to boo-hoo the rest of the Bay Area about how they are being forced to contribute to their own pension plan, I am sure the reaction is mostly "so what?"
I'm sure you have other benefits that other people don't have, you planning on giving those up, sparky?
Next months 'Critical Mass'....
"Over the Bay Bridge"
I remember the strike in 1997. The freeways and buses were a total NIGHTMARE. Monday morning is going to be complete hell, especially for our friends in the East Bay.
Interesting the Gov's saying he not going to intervene. I wonder if that's because he's worried they'll strike over Labor Day weekend when the bridge is closed. They would do something like that.
Two things: We're still into summer months, and this economy is a far cry from 1997, when we ALL had jobs.
Certainly it will be a pain in the ass but not nearly as bad as if the economy were near normal and people were not on vacation.
Summer or not, current economy compared to that of '97, etc. Any way you slice it, it's going to be a nightmare.
Almost everybody pays into their own pension fund -- it is called a 401(k). These people are way over compensated for what they do; given the financial condition BART is in, they should be happy that they still have their jobs. In addition, they really should allow for work rules that allow BART to run efficiently. We all pay for this.
Damn! We're in a tight spot!
Them BART guys done R-U-N-N-O-F-T.