Denny's Free Grand Slam Breakfast Day Tuesday
Marina Yoga Studio Donates Old Mats for Haitian Relief
Muni Bus Nails a Fire Hydrant
Prop 8 Trial Judge Is Gay; Should This Matter?
One Dead in Fisherman's Wharf Nightclub Shooting
We're chagrined for downplaying this BART strike business earlier this week, but there's just been so many strike threats at this point (going back to mid-June) it's hard not to feel like the union's bluffing just a little bit. The update, as it stands, is that BART is ready to go back to the bargaining table with the Amalgamated Transit Union any time between now and Sunday; Mayor Newsom and Mayor Dellums have both issued statements encouraging negotiations to continue and expressing concern for Bay Area businesses; every local news station is going batshit interviewing commuters and predicting traffic Armageddon.
We're taking a poll here to see where all y'all's heads are at with this. Are you freaking out? Can you telecommute? Is this going to make your week a living hell? Or do you imagine, as we do, that there might be another 11th hour compromise as there was back in 2005, averting this whole mess by Sunday night?
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
"They couldn't have picked a better time to go on strike!"
-the unemployed 13% of the Bay Area
'twatwaffles'
you definitely need to trademark that. awesome.
Missing option: The "My employer shipped all the jobs in the City to Dubai and Mumbai so I don't work in the City anymore option."
So, the train operators and station agents fear a four-year wage freeze when the base pay is already $30.07 an hour? Didn't they get the memo that deflation is the word ....
How long does it take to train a person to be a station agent - 1 day? How long does it take to train a train operator for BART - a couple of weeks maybe? How many people are out of work in the Bay Area that wouldn't mind getting paid $25 an hour who are perfectly capable of doing these jobs?
Don't we all feel so sorry for people with guaranteed pensions (I know, I had to look up the word too because it sure as hell doesn't hardly exist for anyone under 50 years old) and health benefits that they may not be able to increase their pay at a time when many people are trying to find a job, many people are upside down on their mortgages, and many people can't afford their medicine and food. Talk about zero sense of reality.
I mean, really, we all know how to yell at skateboaders and hipsters on fixies, how hard could it be to be a station agent?
I think it will be bad, but not as bad as it would have been a few years ago.
The union has to pick its spots. They wanted a 4-year deal at the worst possible time (declining ridership due to job losses, plus the governator raiding transit funds right and left). They should have take a shorter "bad" deal and hoped things would be better in 2 years.
It just smacks of greed, and people are already outraged at greedy bankers and CEOs taking huge bonuses after all the bailouts. I just don't see much (any?) public support for this labor action.
At least the improvement since '97 is that we're 12 years along in technology and I'll bet there are a lot more people who will be able to telecommute Monday instead of going into the office (myself among them).
My big memory of '97 was driving to work on the first day of the strike because I thought my 6a-2p work shift would let me out in time to miss the traffipocalypse. Wrong. I spent an hour in gridlock going from Embarcadero 1 to the Bay Bridge onramp.
I'll tell you one thing....if it last's more than maybe 2-3 days, being a bart employee will be a dangerous ass job. They will be seeing, and rightfully so, as greedy bastards who don't give a damn about the public that they serve. Sucks about the other 2 unions though...they played ball, and not they get kicked in the balls.
We got the BART strike, but then we're shutting the bridge down and right then a heat wave will hit and there will be a 'spare the air' day, which is right when critical mass will roll through. And gas will go up.
BART strike won't bother me. I got laid off. After 6 months of furloughs. After a 10% pay cut on top of that.
BART workers can go to h***.
yeah, it's obviously the Bart workers fault you lost your job. You got screwed, so everyone should get screwed to. America!
i walk to work so i don't give a shit