Passenger Trains > BART On Strike (SF Bay Area)

BART went on strike effective 1:00 AM today. AC Transit may also go out.

Hopefully Caltrain will put a few more coaches on some trains...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/13 01:12 by norm1153.

AC Transit will be operating today (Monday) but may experience a work slowdown as the day progresses. An AC Transit strike may begin on Tuesday but their Union will attempt to provide 24 hour notice before a Strike.

Capitol Corridor (Amtrak) will attempt to add an additional train car to selected train schedules as equipment and conditions permit. The connecting Route 99 Amtrak California Thruway service may have an additional bus or two on standby. No matter what the mode of choice today in the Bay Area, expect delays!

BART servces around 400,000 passengers daily who will now be displaced. An estimated 100,000 additional vehicles will be on the roadways.

norm1153 Wrote:
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> BART went on strike effective 1:00 AM today. AC
> Transit may also go out.
>

All of BART? Just the operator's? Why does the POTUS let them strike and not us?

All of BART is shut down except for the Police Force which legally can not strike and any unrepresented employees (mainly upper management) who elected to go in to assist with alternatives.

The Governor could have called a 60-Day cooling off period but BART requested he did not as that would have brought a potential strike into September, a typically higher ridership month. They rather the employees strike in July (summer) on a Holiday week where ridership is typically lower.

Thus the strike occurred and BART is shut down until the Unions elect to go back to work or an agreement is reached in the contract talks (none of which are scheduled as of yet for today).

It will be a painful strike. BART currently carries 415,000 riders per day, much of it transbay traffic. The Bay Bridge was gridlock as of 5 am this morning.

I hope both sides (management and unions) will be reasonable.

Ironically, BART's heavy intercity rail component, the Capitol Corridor, could be useful for displaced BART
commuters from northern Contra Costa and western/southern Alameda counties.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/13 17:00 by GenePoon.

The neighborhood near the tracks was very quiet with no BART today. No messed up traffic at the stations where buses and cars normally clog the streets. Absent were the losers that linger on the station property who normally urinate, panhandle, and destroy BART property. Presumably no armed robberies near stations, no 459s into vehicles in the parking areas. So the walkout of BART workers has some positives too.

How much do they want now?

Posted from iPhone

415,000a day? Remember those (whose ideological descendants are on TO today) who said no one would ride BART?

CPRR Wrote:
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> How much do they want now?
>
> Posted from iPhone

4.5% raise, each year, for 4 years.

Union members currently pay only $92 / month for health care.

Union members currently pay nothing towards their own pension.

My mother worked as an RN at Alameda County's Highland Hospital, thus a public employee, yet her entire pension was self-funded, per Alameda County contract rules. No taxpayer dollars funded her pension--not a penny. She agreed with this, being old school, because she knew the taxpayer was already paying her as a public servant (and paying her well as an RN), so she made enough to fund her own pension. Her pay was virtually identical to the current BART average union salary.

My big beef with BART is the management. They award these ridiculous "golden parachutes" to lame Board Presidents who don't work. The latest example was something like $300,000+ for a fired Board President. Say what??! If you lose your job, YOU LOSE YOUR PAY.

When BART Board Directors make stupid decisions like that, they look really, really dumb, and taxpayers like me vote "No" when BART comes asking for more money "because we're underfunded." Well, then, run a tighter ship to earn more respect, BART. And do they do anything about FARE EVASION? No. There's more money they could get, but again, no action taken.

Ptolemy Wrote:
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> Remember those ... who said no one would
> ride BART?

Who said that?

timz2 Wrote:
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> Ptolemy Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Remember those ... who said no one would
> > ride BART?
>
> Who said that?

Google "opposition to BART" and you will see from the beginning there was much opposition to the system, largely based on the feeling no one would use it (or maybe because many would use it).

Public authorities are usually several layers insulated from actual accountability. Multiple governments nominate the members for fixed terms. The board members hire a director and senior staff. Easy to stay far away from actually being held to account for high salaries or poor performance.

NY's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has members nominated by the governor, others by the legislature's speaker and senate president, others by NYC mayor, still others by the member counties. And, there are two members appointed by the operating unions, and one elected by commuters. The mayor and governor decide what they want to do direct their nominees and that's a majority.

BART board members are directly elected from the populace (AC Transit and Denver RTD are the other elected boards). However generally directors keep getting reelected.

I would rather sit in hours of traffic, like I did today, than pay those guys a dime more. This is robbery. Need I remind anyone that these things are run by computer, not by the people up front? And that in the instance of the computers breaking down, they can only run 10mph?? They get paid fine. Let them go on strike, fire them all, replace them with newly legalized ex illegal aliens......

Regarding "Who said no one would ride?" I lived in the SF Bay Area during the years BART was being built out and during the initial start-up. There were numerous dumb-**s statements to the effect: "We don't need that, we've got perfectly good freeways to get around on........" Ignorance abounds, even in normally enlighted SF Bay.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/13 20:30 by moltensulphur.

moltensulphur Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding "Who said no one would ride?" I lived
> in the SF Bay Area during the years BART was being
> built out and during the initial start-up. There
> were numerous dumb-**s statements to the effect:
> "We don't need that, we've got perfectly good
> freeways to get around on........" Ignorance
> abounds, even in normally enlighted SF Bay.

All of those people are busy right now and can't be bothered. They are opposing High Speed Rail.

Barry Draper

moltensulphur Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Regarding "Who said no one would ride?" I lived
> in the SF Bay Area during the years BART was being
> built out and during the initial start-up. There
> were numerous dumb-**s statements to the effect:
> "We don't need that, we've got perfectly good
> freeways to get around on........" Ignorance
> abounds, even in normally enlighted SF Bay.

I'm reaching quite a bit, but perhaps the attitude that BART is "not needed" and not critical to the Bay Area allowed a contract that allowed strikes. Some government agencies are not allowed to strike because their functions are considered critical. I believe a deleted post in this thread asked that question, why are they allowed to strike while some are not?

Maybe the BART board needs to consider this, and at the same time push for sacrifices for themselves and the non-agreement employees as a concession to the union employees who'll lose that privilege. I'm sure they will NEVER do this in this age of entitlement, so it's time to bring in the arbitrators to slash everything. >:-)

Don't forget some mayors and city council members took pay cuts when they pushed for layoff of employees recently.

I say the following as the biggest labor supporter on the PLANET . If the BART unions were smart they would have LOCKED OPEN the fare gates at 4AM July 1st (very First thing) . That was their only option that would have kept the union IN the game and the boss would NOT have had the opportunity to fire any workers. This free fare action would have LIFTED a major burden off of riders some of who are very poorly paid.

You know that ALL Caltrans workers (white collar and Blue collar) are strictly BANNED from striking so why is BART allowed to strike ??? I think that strike ban is true for ALl California state employees.
I do not understand why the California Governor has not ALREADY BANNED , via Executive Order, strikes against BART. Something very fishy and strange is going on here with the soft glove treatment of the BART unions by the state government. These BART "unions" have now done the boss a major--major--major favor by ISOLATING themselves from the general public who are also workers. Transit workers in some other countries have gone Free fare in similar labor disputes.

--- Daniel

============================================
cchan006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> moltensulphur Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Regarding "Who said no one would ride?" I
> lived
> > in the SF Bay Area during the years BART was
> being
> > built out and during the initial start-up.
> There
> > were numerous dumb-**s statements to the
> effect:
> > "We don't need that, we've got perfectly good
> > freeways to get around on........" Ignorance
> > abounds, even in normally enlighted SF Bay.
>
> I'm reaching quite a bit, but perhaps the attitude
> that BART is "not needed" and not critical to the
> Bay Area allowed a contract that allowed strikes.
> Some government agencies are not allowed to strike
> because their functions are considered critical. I
> believe a deleted post in this thread asked that
> question, why are they allowed to strike while
> some are not?
>
> Maybe the BART board needs to consider this, and
> at the same time push for sacrifices for
> themselves and the non-agreement employees as a
> concession to the union employees who'll lose that
> privilege. I'm sure they will NEVER do this in
> this age of entitlement, so it's time to bring in
> the arbitrators to slash everything. >:-)
>
> Don't forget some mayors and city council members
> took pay cuts when they pushed for layoff of
> employees recently.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/13 11:04 by daniel3197.

metroexpress Wrote:
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> BART board members are directly elected from the
> populace (AC Transit and Denver RTD are the other
> elected boards). However generally directors keep
> getting reelected.

That is interesting. And quite different from the NY NJ PA area. The various state and bi-state Commissioner jobs are prized political plums, and treated as same. They pay very well, have great benefits, and allow you to direct patronage, etc. Until recently, commissioners of the NYNJ Port Authority had the privilege of "recommending" people for jobs under a strict allocation formula.