Bay Area transit workers on strike

[Le Socialiste]

This is pretty big, seeing as the last transit strike was in 1997 and lasted six days. Some folks are saying this one could last longer, but we'll have to see. In the meanwhile, I encourage all Bay Area comrades to get their asses out and support the rank-and-file - there are several pickets occurring throughout the region. I know many comrades from my local branch and others in Oakland and San Francisco will be out in force for the duration of the strike, hopefully others will be as well. Also, be on the lookout for community meetings and rallies, as these will be going too (again, this mostly applies to Bay Area residents, but if any of y'all learn anything please feel free to post it here).


OAKLAND, CALIF. - San Francisco Bay area commuters got out the door earlier than usual Monday and encountered crowded roads and public transit after Bay Area Rapid Transit train workers went on strike.

BART strike sparks commuter nightmare in San Francisco
Weekend talks between the unions and management failed to produce a new contract by Sunday's expiration date, halting train service for the first time in 16 years.

The walkout promised to derail the more than 400,000 riders who use the nation's fifth-largest rail system and affect every mode of transportation. Transportation officials said another 60,000 vehicles could be on the road, clogging highways and bridges throughout the Bay Area.

Traffic leading up to the toll plaza of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was heavier than usual early Monday. People also lined up early to take buses that were leaving from a few Bay Area Rapid Transit stations.

Alameda-Contra Costa Transit buses into San Francisco were carrying more passengers, riders and bus drivers said.

"It's pretty crazy," said Young Choi, 34. "It's creating a pretty chaotic feeling in terms of the commute situation."

Choi, an architect at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP in San Francisco's financial district, got dropped off by a friend in Berkeley from Walnut Creek around 6:30 a.m. Monday so he could catch the bus after hearing about the strike.

Trafffic is backed up on Interstate 80 and 580 on approach to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during morning rush hour on Monday, July 1, 2013, in Oakland, Calif., in the midst of a strike affecting the BART rail system.

Normally, he'd leave later but was navigating a new route so he wanted to get an earlier start.

Still, early reports indicated a less chaotic morning commute than had been feared.

The strike was called as Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 workers' contracts expired at midnight Sunday. Both the unions and management earlier in the day had said they were far apart on key sticking points including salary, pensions, health care and safety.

"I'm deeply disappointed it has come to this," ATU Local President Antonette Bryant told reporters at a midnight news conference.

Negotiations fell apart Saturday and the unions walked away from the table. California Gov. Jerry Brown's office had urged both sides to resume discussions Sunday with rush hour on the horizon.

But talks between the two sides came to an end Sunday night with BART accusing negotiators of walking away from the bargaining table, while the SEIU countered in a statement that management "threw in the towel."

"A strike is always the last resort and we have done everything in our power to avoid it," Josie Mooney, a lead negotiator for one of BART's two major unions, told CBS Station KPIX in an e-mail. "We are disappointed that BART's failure to bargain honestly and fairly means that hundreds of thousands of Bay Area commuters have to suffer."

The unions, which represent nearly 2,400 train operators, station agents, mechanics, maintenance workers and professional staff, were asking for a 5 percent annual raise over the next three years. BART said Saturday that train operators and station agents in the unions average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually. The workers also pay a flat $92 monthly fee for health insurance.

BART spokesman Rick Rice said BART had upped its original offer of a 4 percent pay rise over the next four years to 8 percent. The proposed salary increase is on top of a 1 percent raise employees were scheduled to receive Monday, Rice added.

The transit agency also said it offered to reduce the contribution employees would have to make to their pensions, and lower the costs of health care premiums they would have to pay.

But ATU Local President Antonette Bryant said Sunday that BART's latest proposal is not an actual pay increase, calling it "surface bargaining."

"Our members aren't interested in disrupting the Bay Area, but management has put us in a position where we have no choice," said Bryant.

BART's last strike lasted six days in 1997.

Other area transit agencies urged commuters to consider carpooling, taking buses or ferries, working from home and, if they must drive to work, leaving earlier or even later than usual.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said the city will offer increased transportation options, including at the airport, and increase staff for traffic management. BART said it will let commuters use parking lots at their 33 stations free of charge for the purpose of carpooling.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57591713/san-fran-bay-area-transit-workers-go-on-strike/?pageNum=2

[A Revolutionary Tool]

The courts ordered BART workers to continue working for at least the next 60 days. This is according to a newspaper in my break area.

[Jimmie Higgins]

The courts ordered BART workers to continue working for at least the next 60 days. This is according to a newspaper in my break area.

Yeah that's the latest I've heard as well.

There was talk that this wasn't likely because it would push the strike back to a peak traffic season in the Bay Area which in theory would make strike pressure stronger on the BART system. I'm dubious about that because I don't think BART cares and they think - with some cause - that popular anger will go against the strikers which would allow BART to hold out and refuse to make any deals with the union.

There's also a possibility that this will give the BART more time to train scabs - I don't know if that would be possible or legal, I know the admin. wouldn't have been able to pull it off without the court order and if the strike had gone on now. The system threatened to open the cross-bay part of the line with scab labor - maybe the 60 days will allow them to do that. I don't know. There may be legal issues which prevent them from training people in anticipation of a work-action... though you know, laws.

On the other hand, the increased time may also allow the BART rank and file and union to prepare better. There was a lot of confidence on display by union supporters, but it was also very insular and I think as much as the media always initially tries to paint public sentiment against strikers, I think in this case, the BART system destroyed the union on a PR and popular support front. What I think that the BART union leadership may not understand is that having the right stratigic pieces in place (rank and file solidarity, ability to shut the system down) if there isn't a sense of this being a class struggle beyond just BART workers, then the BART bosses can wait them out because as long as the system is shut down, more people - encouraged by the media - will turn against the union. This could cause internal confidence to begin to melt away if the strike drags on and BART refuses to negotiate or compromise and the vast majority of anger is directed at the workers.

Anyway, all just specultation. I think this will be a significant local labor issue one way or another. I think people not in the union should try and help build some community solidarity on an anti-austerity basis and I think radicals need to argue that supporting the workers should also be part of an effort to increase the PUBLIC part of Bay Area public transportation which is too expensive, too limited in service, and is run on the basis of facilitating transporation for San Francisco tech and finance and tourism, not the actual public. The BART system wants to increase BART police - also know as the Oscar Grant Murder Corporation - but those police could be fired, their cars could be sold (they're BART police, why do they have their own cop cars?) and at least two maintainance or custodial workers hired for each one.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Yeah I definitely see support for the strikers as what's going to be what makes or breaks the strike. When the workers went on strike in July I saw a few people on my Facebook complaining and complaining about lazy workers on strike, it sucks. 60 days to change it...

[Le Socialiste]

On the other hand, the increased time may also allow the BART rank and file and union to prepare better. There was a lot of confidence on display by union supporters, but it was also very insular and I think as much as the media always initially tries to paint public sentiment against strikers, I think in this case, the BART system destroyed the union on a PR and popular support front.

This is the greatest challenge facing BART workers and their supporters, no doubt. I haven't been involved in any of the prior actions (being out of the Bay Area and all), but the task of building up networks of community solidarity and support just haven't seemed to be a priority for the union leadership - and the initial strike action(s) exposed this weakness for all who bothered to take notice. I just hope the rank-and-file, the leadership, and supporters use this time to do some serious, extensive outreach, because without it we'll be - for all intents and purposes - hamstrung by public opinion and hostility. The question is how we rebuild and regain this support, because if past actions have been any indicator, it'll take more than just rank-and-file initiative to win this - they'll need the public behind them as well (the CTU strike being the most recent example of this in my mind).