<p>It is happening.</p>
<p>Created a lot of inconvenience to the commuters. I was told average union employee earns over 120K per year, still don’t know why they have to strike.</p>
<p>Whats your prediction on how long it will last? LOL- DS and his GF just moved into the city yesterday (from the other side of the bay). Great timing. Then again, maybe it was. GF had a reverse commute. No problem. DS drove down 280. Not sure how that was.</p>
<p><a href=“BART Strike Hits Commuters; No Word On Service Resumption : The Two-Way : NPR”>BART Strike Hits Commuters; No Word On Service Resumption : The Two-Way : NPR;
<p>not sounding like it will be settled quickly. Guessing next week when more people come back to work from the 4th that there will be more pressure on each side to settle.<br>
Luckily, AC transit did not strike also. Ferries tripled their runs and casual car pool spots were expanded. Also heard that Uber and Lyft enjoying surge in popularity…</p>
<p>BART is apparently such a toxic place to work that it is probably more likely that Israelis and Palestinians will make peace than BART and the unions can come to an agreement without the threat of either a strike or lockout.</p>
<p>Their base salary (average) is $71,000.
Not an insignificant amount, however SF is expensive place to live.
And how many people earn that or is it like saying the "average aid award " is $28,000?
Who is getting $7,000 and who’s getting $46,000?</p>
<p>I think it sounds like a good time to take a vacation.</p>
<p>EK, yes, that’s the base. But many also enjoy overtime and their benefits packages alone are worth more than some of our teachers make a year…(per TV report tonight). </p>
<p>While there is sympathy for the Union workers, a few more rounds of horrendous commute will quickly erode that sympathy. Evening traffic in Marin County (Bart doesn’t even run in Marin) from before the GG Bridge to the Richmond Bridge was UNbelievable…happy to be going the opposite direction tonight…</p>
<p>Not clear that inconvenienced commuters will, or should, blame the striking transit workers. It becomes a high-stakes PR battle over which side appears more reasonable. Not knowing the particulars of the situation, I wouldn’t assume that mounting public frustration necessarily turns against the workers. It could turn against management. We’ll know soon enough.</p>
<p>bc, just my observation, but seems that workers are the ones I’m hearing the most negative comments about today. Not so much for management. But! it’s early in the strike and I’m sure as people really start listening to/looking at both sides’ arguments, that the pendulum will swing a bit. Especially if this goes into next week, when many return to work from the Holiday…</p>
<p>Public opinion is generally unfavorable to both the management and union, but probably more against the union now. That the union called a strike, rather than management calling a lockout, probably has something to do with it.</p>
<p>There is also likely a social class dynamic here. BART employees are mainly relatively well paid blue collar workers, while BART riders contain a lot of white collar workers, lower paid blue collar workers, or underclass.</p>
<p>Many white collar workers (many of whom are paid nowhere near what BART employees are paid) disdain blue collar jobs, and resent the idea of any blue collar workers earning higher pay and benefits than they do. BART employees probably disdain what they probably see as whiny overpaid financiers and the like, as well as the others whom they see as dirtying up the BART cars (spilling food, urine, vomit, etc. that they have to clean up), so they may see the riders’ inconvenience as deserved payback.</p>
<p>I think that 5% salary increase per year demand from the union is too much. These are not high tech jobs(hence high risk high reward). The State employees have not had an increase for as long as Bart employees, why Bart deserve a different increase?</p>
<p>The unions had to go to court or NLRB so that their negotiators could get time off to negotiate rather than take vacation; that is one reason negotiations started so late in the game. Many other instances of bad faith by management including disinformation. (DH works for BART.) Think about what is NOT on the table. Like accumulating unlimited hours of unused vacation time such that the old GM was able to get paid for two years AFTER she left, and then accumulate more vacation. Or vesting for retirement after only five years. That kind of stuff benefits management. In DH’s blue collar job, workers’ bodies give out before they turn 65 – shoulders, knees, back. He can’t do the kind of overtime that the media likes to quote because he needs to work until DD graduates, but who knows how long his body will last even though he goes to the gym regularly. </p>
<p>Remember, BART has a surplus and has increased revenues due to increased ridership and higher fares. They are playing with the figures. I’m glad the mediator is there now so management stops spewing their BS to the press.</p>
<p>They havent had a raise for five years?
Wouldn’t most union members strike under those circumstances?</p>
<p>[What’s</a> Behind the BART Strike? | Mother Jones](<a href=“http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/07/bay-area-transit-strike-why-it-matters]What’s”>What’s Behind the BART Strike? – Mother Jones)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>(Four years, since the last contract in 2009.)</p>
<p>Part of the reason for lack of general public support for the union in this case is that having a 0% raise during a severe economic downturn is a lot better than the change in the California median household income of -7.3% from 2009 to 2011.</p>
<p>[California</a> State Household Income | Department of Numbers](<a href=“http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/california/]California”>California State Household Income | Department of Numbers)</p>
<p>The CA State Employee Union have not had a raise for longer than four years and just recently, they have started to negotiate for a 2% raise and it is no where near 15% in 3 years that Bart Union is asking.</p>
<p>Not to mention value of benefits keeps going up. I think they could find plenty of takers at current rates. Or less.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>More accurately, the cost of benefits is rising rapidly, so employers in general (including but not limited to BART) keep finding that “the same” benefits (particularly medical insurance) become more expensive (after inflation adjustment) every year.</p>
<p>Of course, there is also the defined-benefit pension problem where past underfunded promises (easy to make when they don’t have to be paid now) produced unsustainable pension liabilities. Employees understandably do not like it when promises are broken.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Probably true at first (though perhaps not as much as one might expect, given the tendency of even low paid white collar workers to turn down even well paid blue collar jobs), although BART is likely a rather unpleasant place to work, since nasty unions are often a mirror image of management’s disregard for employees. I.e. it would not be surprising if many people would want higher pay to work at BART than at a more pleasant employer.</p>
<p>For those who think these jobs are so great, be happy your kids are in college to get white collar jobs. Blue collar work is hard work that is hard on the body. By the time most of the guys hit their mid-forties (and they are guys because of multi 40 pound steps they have to be able to lift, twist, and set down), they have knee, back, and/or shoulder problems. They work outside in the middle of the night, sometimes in gang territory, and carry heavy tools that can be used as weapons and have value on the street. If you’re tired and become careless, you can be killed on the job like the guy who was working on Santa Clara 49er stadium elevator. And let me tell you, no amount of money would be sufficient compensation for what my husband barely escaped because he was sick that day: Clean up a horribly squished body whose guts were smeared all over an elevator shaft. (The guy broke into the elevator, climbed onto its roof by breaking into the door on the top, and jumped off after smoking crack.) And there are hobos living inside the space between BART and Muni, but neither agency’s cops (or maybe it is SFPD for Muni) want to take responsibility for getting them out, and since many of the homeless are mentally ill and unpredictable, it is scary to work there.</p>
<p>Where there’s comparable jobs in private industry, the union wages are much higher so it has been difficult to fill those positions, hence the high rate of overtime. The few who have come over are not the creme de la creme.</p>
<p>As for station agents, drivers, and janitors: Most have to work part-time for YEARS before a full-time position opens up. This is quite a different world than what are kids are getting into.</p>
<p>And yes, to get this back to the CC world, DD is taking classes at a community college this summer and was taking BART for transportation since a bus ride takes close to two hours. So yes, our family is also affected from the consumer end of things.</p>
<p>Strike has been suspended until August 4.</p>
<p>Expect nothing until August 3. Then expect the strike to resume on August 4, given the extremely low level of trust both sides have for each other. Meanwhile, both sides appear to be losing standing in public opinion (hard to believe that can be possible given how low it started).</p>
<p>[BART</a> rolls under 30-day extension - sides far apart - SFGate](<a href=“BART rolls under 30-day extension - sides far apart”>BART rolls under 30-day extension - sides far apart)</p>