Public outrage weakened BART strike threat

sfgate.com,
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer

(08-17) 20:16 PDT -- A wave of anger over a threatened BART strike, averted hours before a Monday walkout, carried a sobering message to employee unions and politicians: In hard economic times, voters in the liberal Bay Area can run out of patience over the demands of organized labor.

The palpable outrage at the 900 rank-and-file members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 - expressed in Internet forums and on SFGate.com, The Chronicle's Web site - helped settle the impasse after politicians, other unions and political leaders pushed for a last-minute deal.

But the politics of the BART settlement present a challenge for powerful labor unions as candidates are shaping their messages for the governor's race next year, experts say. "A lot of anger reflects the uncertainty of the economy and the pain that a lot of people were already feeling," UC Berkeley Professor Harley Shaiken, a labor expert who closely tracked the BART negotiations, said Monday.

Rather than seeing the strike threat as a sign of workers standing for their rights, he said, the public seemed to be saying, " 'They're getting something while I'm giving up something. That makes me angry.' "

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/18/MNOD199P6E.DTL">Complete article

I don't mind them threatening a strike, though. Ownership already owns the Sword of Damocles.

which makes the union's position a little more difficult, especially in this economic climate. I doubt they gained much in this contract.

I retired from BART, by the way. ATU 1555 used to be my union.

I know the money doesn't go directly to the workers, but in a region with a high unemployment rate it's not easy to get much sympathy from a public who sees themselves as being gouged by recent fare increases and service cutbacks.

I think the real resistance is the inconvenience it would cause San Franciscans if BART wasn't operating.

There was an effective P.R. campaign against the BART unions and the ATU (drivers) union was the only one that held out and it was on a 4 year wage freeze, pension contributions, and some work rules. In a year when many people have seen wage freezes, pension cuts, or worse yet had their jobs disappear it's easy to paint the union as 'greedy.'

The strike threat did enable the local to get some concessions, like a potential raise after two years if the transit authority is bringing in more money and a reinstatement of six floating vacation days.

BART not running would be a serious inconvenience on riders and drivers who live in the East Bay and work in San Francisco. Since most would switch to driving, the commute times across the Bay Bridge would increase by at least an hour.

More severely affected would be those who don't have a car available -- they'd be forced to take multiple buses at a high cost in terms of time -- possibly three to four times as long as taking BART because many of the bus routes are designed to hub at BART stations, not provide primary transport from city to city.

Still if the economy were in better shape I think there would have been more support for the ATU local .

BART not running would be a serious inconvenience on riders and drivers who live in the East Bay and work in San Francisco. Since most would switch to driving, the commute times across the Bay Bridge would increase by at least an hour.

Especially on Labor Day weekend, when the Bay Bridge will be closed for several days as part of the construction project for the new span.

Starting pay for a station agent/ booth attendant (you know, the person that gives directions and examines non-working tickets etc.) is about $63k...and station agents don't have a great reputation for being especially friendly or helpful. With overtime, which is extensive, the pay for this job can go quite high. Also, BART pays for both the employee and employer pension contributions, which is nothing to sneeze at.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_13093561?source=most_emailed

There's more detail here: http://bartlabor.com/?cat=11 < this site is run by BART themselves, so it lays out management's position. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Some of the contentions can be verified by anyone living in the Bay Area - eg the fact that train operators take a 10 minute break after a 6 minute shuttle journey at the airport extension. This doesn't exactly make for zippy service.

I don't mind the BART employees enjoying a decent wage. But frankly, they've already got a very good deal and they're not exactly hurting.

Seeing all the escalators going up one afternoon, I asked why don't a couple of them go down for folks going the other direction. (I basically know why they do this...but ALL the escalators, every single of of them, there's a bunch, were going up).

So the station agent says the escalators don't go down because they can't. They were built only to go up "the system is 30 some years old...".

Sounds funny but okayyyy.

Next morning, I arrive in Oakland to find...all the escalators going down. :eyes: :wtf:

What will stick in my mind is not the logic or illogic of the way they run them, but instead what the station agent told me about the escalators not being able to run in the down direction because they were only designed to run up.

But I don't want to rag on the station agent too much, after all, at least he didn't shoot me. :eyes:
:hide:

Oh, they do have one job -- saying no to the customers all day long. :P

that makes more sense. doesn't play well for the bad rap that unions get, either.

They could see there were problems, so they traded off pay freezes now against lump sum payments in future years designed to make up the loss. BART management are not perfect, but they're cutting their own pay. So it was all looking win-win until the ATU dug their heels in...that turned a lot of people against them, especially since they are the highest-paid of all the different groups.

Maybe it's something about CA, but unions here can be weird. The Prison Officers Union seems to be made up of Republicans (more crime1 more prisons! harsher sentences! more prisons! $$$!) and the SEIU and the NUHW have been having an ongoing membership war for the last year (maybe not a full year, but it feels like it) so and have both spent a fortune on advertising materials - I lean slightly towards the NUHW, but it's really quite depressing.

http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=7254
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/seiu-nuhw-conflict-moves-to-sacramento/