If many of you are familiar with the word around the public transit sphere, BART contracts are being negotiated with management at this time and the threat of a strike was to happen at the stroke of 12:01AM on July 1st, but the unions and BART agreed to a nine day contract extension that would end this Thursday at midnight.
It sounds a little confusing on when the extension ends, is it 11:59PM on Wednesday or 11:59PM on Thursday? Based on this question, would the strike start on this Thursday or Friday?
But with all the attention on Michael Jackson's memorial service in the headline news today, what about the possibility of a BART strike? The local media agencies are not talking about this big elephant in the room that's ready to stomp the crap out of all the commuters who depend on this transit service to get to work, school, college, and just everything else that keeps this Bay Area moving.
Checking on BART's website this morning, the contract negotiations are still going on, so the possibility of a strike may happen, but word from BART is that in order to have the nine day extension, the union had to agree to give the public 72 hours advance notice if they are to strike.
With so little media attention on this issue and the potential for a strike, will the 72 hour notice come-out in time? What I'm hoping won't happen is that Governor Arnold will pull off the "cooling off period" and we let this drag into the Labor Day weekend when traffic will be crippled on the Bay Bridge and people have no choice but to take a ferry or alternate bridges because BART decided to strike at this perfect time.
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