Posts Tagged "BART"
How NOT to win a public fight
This was some kind of weekend. Mainly because I was waiting around on pins and needles for word on whether the threatened BART strike was actually going to go down.
Well, waiting around on Sunday afternoon that is. Saturday was spent blissfully as I turn off thoughts of work once I leave the office. There is no fretting over that once I’m out the doors. It helps keep me sane. Plus is the #1 indicator that I am stressed the mess out over the job.
Anywho, this proposed strike. So it would have been the first strike since 1997 and would have CRIPPLED the commute. With an average of 300,000 people taking BART everyday, can you imagine that many more people on the already congested roads heading to San Francisco? I wonder how fast we can get to nowhere. Traffic would be at a stand still. I had to mentally prepare myself to wake up earlier in hopes of getting to work on time. Thankfully, around 6:30pm Sunday evening, we all got word that the strike was off. That an agreement was made between management and the last union holdout, the Amalgamated Transit Union [ATU] Local 1555, and all was now right in the world. Well, depending on the actual union vote later next week.
Anywho, during this little tussle, what stood out to me was how the ATU didn’t stand a chance. Not one tiny iota.
First against them: the general state of the economy.
Sure in a time when money is falling out of the sky, standing firm in your demands for benefits and wage increases and better working conditions are supported but we’re at our financial worst at the moment. People are being furloughed, having their wages and benefits cut or frozen for the foreseeable future or, worse yet, losing their jobs. This is not the time to be upset that you’re being asked to consider a wage freeze, paying a little bit more for your benefits and paying into your retirement pension. Especially not when many of your members make more than the commuters who use your service [wanna see how your salary stacks up? Try it. It’s fun! If you consider getting punched in your stomach fun] and do less work.
Second against them: the other two unions
BART management was able to come to an agreement with the other two unions working with BART, the first and third largest unions in terms of membership. They agreed to management’s contract terms yet the ATU didn’t and continued to threaten a strike. And in a show of union solidarity, the other two unions would honor said strike.
So if the 900 members of the ATU called a strike, thousands of other union employees, who have already agreed to a contract, will be forced out of work. They’d have to take the much lower strike pay and suffer along because one group refused the offered contract. That doesn’t seem fair. And plays nicely for BART management. How you ask?
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