The strike is on again in San Francisco after a long tango between BART management, their lead anti-union negotiator, Thomas Hook, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and SIEU Local 1021. The fist strike back in July was called off by the unions and further delayed by the intervention of State Governor Jerry Brown who sought and obtained a court ordered 60 day cooling off period. That cooling off period has expired and with the unions and BART management making little progress the strike is back on again.
According to one report "The strike is an expression of deep opposition among transit workers to the demands of BART management, which is backed by the political establishment and media in the Bay Area and California. These demands include significant cuts in health care and pension benefits, along with changes in job rules designed to significantly reduce pay and increase management power."
The unions involved in the negotiations have conceded to most of management's demands but they know that such concessions remain deeply resented by their local membership who are unlikely to vote in favour of a sell out deal at their expense.
The sister local to ATU 1555, ATU local 192, representing bus drivers employed by AC Transit issued a strike notice after its members twice voted down sell out deals recommended to them by their leadership. During the first strike AC Transit was an essential tool in BART management's strategy of blunting the impact of the strike by running buses across the Bay area. While there was expressions of solidarity between BART workers and AC Transit drivers prior to the first strike, the ATU leadership deliberately sabotaged the tactic of a united union front in the face of management intransigence during the negotaitons by both BART and AC Transit officials.
A worker interviewed at a rally in support of the strike "noted that, just as with the first BART strike in July, the transit workers were not receiving any strike pay. Workers will receive a meager $25 a week in strike pay only if it lasts more than two or three weeks, he said." For many workers this second strike appears to be a continuation of the first one, which was shut down by the unions with the promise that management would bargain fairly. “This is pretty much a continuation of the first strike,” said one worker. “They never really negotiated so I think of this as the sixth day of our strike.”
The unions involved in the negotiations have conceded to most of management's demands but they know that such concessions remain deeply resented by their local membership who are unlikely to vote in favour of a sell out deal at their expense.
The sister local to ATU 1555, ATU local 192, representing bus drivers employed by AC Transit issued a strike notice after its members twice voted down sell out deals recommended to them by their leadership. During the first strike AC Transit was an essential tool in BART management's strategy of blunting the impact of the strike by running buses across the Bay area. While there was expressions of solidarity between BART workers and AC Transit drivers prior to the first strike, the ATU leadership deliberately sabotaged the tactic of a united union front in the face of management intransigence during the negotaitons by both BART and AC Transit officials.
A worker interviewed at a rally in support of the strike "noted that, just as with the first BART strike in July, the transit workers were not receiving any strike pay. Workers will receive a meager $25 a week in strike pay only if it lasts more than two or three weeks, he said." For many workers this second strike appears to be a continuation of the first one, which was shut down by the unions with the promise that management would bargain fairly. “This is pretty much a continuation of the first strike,” said one worker. “They never really negotiated so I think of this as the sixth day of our strike.”
Workers are aware and deeply suspicious of the role their unions have been taking in the strike, knowing full well that Governor Brown would seek the court imposed injunction, and instead of devising a common strike strategy between BART workers and AC Transit drivers, deliberately keeping them apart so that AC Transit drivers would be forced to work as scabs in the event of a strike by BART subway workers.
Only one day after the strike began two BART maintenance workers who were checking a section of track were struck and killed by a San Francisco Bay area commuter train. Because of the ongoing transit strike a non-union employee was operating the train. According to the police deputy chief for Bay Area Rapid Transit the driver in the accident was “qualified.” Apparently at the time of the accident, the train was "being run in automatic mode under computer control."
BART Assistant General Manager, Paul Oversier, told reporters that one of the two workers, whose names were not released, was with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Oversier said. The union is not on strike but had asked members to show up on picket lines to support other workers. The employee "chose to come to work," Oversier said.
In its twitter feed ATU Local 1555 said it would suspend picketing for one day due to the recent tragedy and out of respect for the families involved. On Saturday night, picketers held candlelight vigils for the two workers killed. The Local 1555 twitter post stated "Our hearts go out to any @SFBART comrades involved in today's incident. In the midst of this #BARTstrike, NO ONE deserves to die."
