Wednesday, June 26, 2013

From an Angry Citizen: Don't Threaten Us with a BART Strike

Today should be a great day for everyone in the Bay Area.  The Defense of Marriage Act has been ruled unconstitutional, and Proposition 8 has been struck down by making same sex marriage legal in California.

But someone had to leave a huge sour note in our mouths today, and that's the BART employee unions.

As a result of the authorization to strike votes, over 98% of employees have given their authorization to leadership to call a strike, which may happen as early as Monday, July 1st when their contracts expire at 12:01AM on Monday.

If a strike happens, this transit agency who carries more than 400,000 people a day will make the entire Bay Area transportation system of roads, highways, and other transit agencies go into submission.  The MTC has worked out a war plan for such a worst case scenario, but with a possible AC Transit strike also looming, it could also turn into the perfect storm.

Governor Brown has the ability to call a 60 day cooling off period, and other resources such as mediators are at the disposal of BART management and the unions if something doesn't work out.

Akit's Opinions
Every four years, there's always a threat of a strike from the BART unions.  Those employees know, with a strike, they can cripple the entire Bay Area, and they will always win what they want, every single time.

On this round, they want a 23.2% raise over three years, and that's because they have the leverage to screw the public.  I'm a public employee making much less than the average BART worker and I haven't received a raise in five and a half years.  If I had a shot at a raise by reclassification of my job, I'd likely get a five percent bump.  If we were to strike, we wouldn't cripple the entire Bay Area, we'd just make a handful of people upset and frustrated.

It's time for us, the people of the Bay Area to finally stand-up to BART's strike threats with threats of our own:
  1. Stop using us as bargaining chips.
  2. Stop making threats of a strike every four years.
  3. We will perservere if you strike.
  4. You will never be forgiven if you strike.
  5. Jerry Brown, you have the power to order that 60 day cooling-off period, DO IT.

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJune 30, 2013 at 10:33 AM

    BART officials don't want the 60 day cooling-off period, since ridership is often lower in the summer. Even worse, if the inevitable strike is postponed 60 days, that could conflict with the (possible) closure of the Bay Bridge over Labor Day weekend. That would be a mess.

    ReplyDelete

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