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BART’s two biggest labor unions announced today that their members have voted to authorize a strike against the transit agency.
Members of Service Employees International Union Local 1221, which represents 1,430 mechanics, custodians and clerical workers, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, which represents 945 station agents, train operators and foreworkers, voted on Tuesday but the results weren’t announced until today.
The votes give union leaders the power to call a strike, but they don’t necessarily mean that one will occur.
The unions’ contracts with BART expire on Sunday, so a strike could potentially begin as soon as Monday morning.
Key issues in the talks, which began on April 1, are wages, health care costs, pension contribution costs, work rules and safety.
BART management spokesman Rick Rice called the strike authorization votes “a procedural move” by the unions but he said the two sides are “continuing to negotiate to try to get a deal.”
Rice said contract talks will resume today. He said negotiations were suspended on Tuesday so union members could vote.
John Arantes, the president of the BART chapter of SEIU Local 1021, said in a statement, “We have tried in vain to get BART to have serious conversations about the issues facing workers every day — there are fewer workers, working for less money, in more dangerous conditions.”
Arantes said, “This is an unsafe, unfair situation that can’t be allowed to continue. We don’t want to strike, but BART management seems determined to cause one.”
Antonette Bryant, the president of ATU Local 1555, said, “Our members are under attack and the district refuses to act. All we want is fair compensation and a safe workplace.”
Rice said BART has asked Gov. Jerry Brown not to order a 60-day cooling off period that would delay a strike if an agreement isn’t reached by Sunday.
He said that if a strike is to occur, the transit agency would rather face one now, when ridership is down due to summer vacations, rather than in September, when ridership returns to peak levels.
The last time BART employees staged a strike was in September 1997. The walkout lasted six days before a settlement was finally reached.
Regional transit officials are warning commuters that there will be gridlock on Bay Area streets if BART workers go on strike next week.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission will be sending letters to employers in the region
encouraging them to work with employees to find alternatives to driving during peak morning and evening commute hours.
Telecommuting will be encouraged, as well as carpooling or using alternative transit services such as Alameda-Contra Costa Transit buses or
ferries across the Bay.
BART provides about 400,000 rides daily, including 96,000 across the Bay in the Transbay Tube during peak commute hours, which is 50 percent more than when BART workers last held a strike, MTC executive director Steve Heminger said.
Because of that, “the impact is likely to be even more substantial,” Heminger said.
The commission approved Heminger’s request to reimburse other regional transit agencies if they have to provide additional service because of a strike.
The money would come mostly from up to $18.7 million in state funding to BART that the MTC has the authority to redirect toward the other agencies if necessary, Heminger said.
“The supplemental services … can in no way fully replace BART’s capacity in the event of a work stoppage,” Heminger wrote in his request to
the commission. “But these services can make a bad situation somewhat better for a considerable number of travelers.”
Commuters are encouraged to call 511 or visit www.511.org to review all travel alternatives.
What a poorly written article- or perhaps it’s done on purpose. What are the DETAILS of the strike issues? They are BART’s request workers pay $92/mo for family health care and contribute something to their pension. Most private sector workers don’t even have a pension. Strikers want a 23% pay raise over 3 years. The average salary is $71m, $11m overtime, and >$50m in benefits. If the public knows this, they’ll want striking BART workers to go the way of striking air traffic contollers. Anyone can be replaced.
The Sycamore Valley Road/ Camino Ramon intersection is extremely busy, and those crossing iron horse trail are very vulnerable. The area really needs a pedestrian overpass to increase safety for walkers and bikers. Most places with this degree of congestion use such, and it’s strange that accommodations don’t already exist. An overpass would greatly benefit cars and nondrivers alike.
Laura…you have your brains in the sky. I am assuming you know how to read. What on earth does your comment have to do with the subject matter at hand. You may have a great idea, but know when to play your cards.
Thanks for Listening….Julia Pardini from Alamo
One of the “benefits” that I hope the BART board is successful in ending is the practice of pension “pick-up”, as discussed in the article below from the CC times. This refers to the employer (BART, meaning taxpayers) paying for not only the employER cost of pensions, but also “picking up” the employee’s contribution as well. Apparently this little-known (but costly) practice has been applied to most BART employees.
Read down through the linked article to find some specifics of this, as it relates to BART (the article starts off with some non-BART examples).
We need a BART board and negotiation team that will hang tough, in ending the most egregious bits of “nest feathering” that take place at BART.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_23516737/you-pay-this-little-known-perk-pension-pickup
As we move further towards the realization of ABAG’s, ONE BAY AREA’s and UN’s ideas of getting rid of cars (and individual transport systems) and forcing mass transit systems upon us all, we will experience the results of having one unified large mass transit system. It puts an enormous amount of clout into the hands of its Employee’s UNION.
We’ll see (again) how it feels for us citizens to be BLACKMAILED into ever-higher and over-the-top compensation packages for basic workers doing fairly menial tasks.
Pay up or we’ll strike (and bring down the Bay Area’s economy).
This is why it used to be that “government workers” could not strike.
Imagine a world where there is only government-supplied transportation, healthcare, education, etc.. The Employee Unions will be able to get anything and everything.
With only Politicians (with no personal money at stake) to fight against their demands, government employees will become the richest, cushiest class on earth.
@PSM,
Come now, we already have the “cushiest class on earth(sic)”. Those individuals are apart of an incredibly strong bargaining unit organization and they have not shown any reticence to strike, regardless of the concurrent impacts to society. Their employers are MLB, the NFL, the NBA and even the NHL.
Can you imagine a world where individuals from those “Employee Unions are able to get to get anything and everything?”
I don’t have to IMAGINE that–I already can’t afford to go to a football game, etc..
I think that it is ridiculous that a baseball player gets paid millions of dollars–it’s out of whack with reality (except that it is in reality).
I think that it is ridiculous that a plumber (or auto mechanic) charges at a rate of $180 or more per hour.
There’s nothing “rational” about Unions. It’s all just highway robbery at some form of gunpoint.
Let’s see how the Bay Area likes being held up!?!
But you know the BART management is not really going to hold the line here. They aren’t real Business Owners. They don’t have anything really at stake to lose. So they’ll cave fairly quickly.
It is only us Citizens who will pay more from this Strike and Pay Raise—-and we have no one at the Bargaining Table representing us at all.
Take out your wallet–give up the cash.
Go to the Bank–take out a loan and pay the man outside.
Then go for a ride on BART (actually you’ll end up paying for BART even if you never use BART).
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