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San Francisco transit workers strike for second time this year
San Francisco transit workers strike for second time this year
(about 2 hours later)
Commuters in the San Francisco bay area got up before dawn on Friday to endure heavy traffic on roadways, as workers for the region's largest transit system walked off the job for the second time in four months.
Hundreds of thousands of San Francisco Bay area commuters are battling gridlock and confusion after workers for the region's largest transit system went on strike.
People were lined up well before 5am Friday at a Bay Area Rapid Transit train station in Walnut Creek for one of the charter buses Bart was running into San Francisco. Traffic at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plaza into San Francisco and the roads leading to it also appeared heavier than normal for the early morning.
The long-feared shutdown of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) system, the second in four months, triggered pre-dawn traffic jams and queues for buses on Friday around Oakland and San Francisco.
Other alternatives to Bart include ferries and Alameda-Contra Costa transit district buses.
With dire warnings of “catastrophic” disruption commuters expressed anger and frustration that union leaders and managers had again failed to resolve a dispute over pay, benefits and conditions.
The walkout began at midnight Thursday, the culmination of six months of on-again, off-again talks that fell apart. Bart and the unions came "extremely close" to agreement on economic, healthcare and pension issues, but the parties were far apart on work rule issues, said Roxanne Sanchez, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021.
Each side blamed the other after after six months of on-off negotiations collapsed on Thursday. More than 28 hours of continuous talks mid-week came agonisingly close to a collective bargaining agreement. The sticking point was work rule changes.
The impasse came after a marathon negotiating session with the participation of federal mediators.
Many fear the strike will last longer than the four-day stoppage in July, which was estimated to have cost $73m a day. The bay area's “worst transit nightmare” had become reality, said the San Francisco Examiner.
About 400,000 riders take Bart every weekday on the nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system. The system carries passengers from the farthest reaches of the densely populated eastern suburbs to San Francisco International Airport across the bay.
Rufus Jeffris, a spokesman for the Bay Area Council, a business advocacy group, was even gloomier. "It’s going to be catastrophic,” he told reporters.
Antoinette Bryant of Amalgamated Transit Union told the Associated Press early Friday that her workers were on strike as of midnight, while Cecille Isidro of the SEIU confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that the unions were striking.
About 400,000 riders take Bart every weekday on the US's fifth-largest commuter rail system. It carries passengers from distant, densely populated eastern suburbs across the bay to San Francisco and the airport.
Agency spokesman Rick Rice also confirmed the strike by the unions in an email early Friday, but he said that the trains would finish their runs early Friday so riders wouldn't be stranded.
About a quarter of Bart's annual $1.6bn budget is spent on labour. Mangers are seeking savings from workers to partly fund new railway cars and a new train control centre.
"They don't need to strike," he said. "They could instead take Bart's offer to a vote of their members or continue to discuss options that could lead to a resolution."
The system's general manager, Grace Crunican, accused union leaders of blocking necessary improvements to efficiency. "We are not going to agree to something we can't afford. We have to protect the ageing system for our workers and the public."
The unions said one of the work rules that Bart wanted to change was employees' fixed work schedules. Some employees work four-day, 10-hour shifts while others work five-day, eight-hour shifts. Union officials said Bart wanted to schedule people as they saw fit.
Workers, including more than 2,300 mechanics, custodians, station agents, train operators and clerical staff, now average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually, the transit agency said. Bart workers currently pay $92 a month for health care and contribute nothing toward their pensions.
Bart officials say work rules refer to past practices that require approval from unions and management to change. The rules make it difficult to implement technological changes or add extra service on holidays because of a special event, the agency says.
Leaders of Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 said they had compromised on health benefits, pension contributions and other issues, and offered to put unresolved disputes to an arbitrator, but that managers proved intransigent.
Sanchez said the unions suggested taking the remaining issues to arbitration but management refused.
"We made concessions, but you can only bend so far before you break. This is the way they want to solve the conflict, in a fight, a street fight,” said one leader, Roxanne Sanchez.
Bart general manager Grace Crunican countered that the agency needed to alter some of those rules to run the system efficiently. She said Bart also needed to control costs to help pay for new rail cars and other improvements.
Unions complained that managers wished to change fixed work schedules to deploy people as they saw fit even though its members made $100m in concessions in 2009 to help plug the system's-then $310m deficit.
"We are not going to agree to something we can't afford. We have to protect the aging system for our workers and the public," Crunican said.
The San Francisco municipal transportation agency said it would improvise expanded carpool locations and other measures to ease congestion. Bart management provided a limited, free, first-come first-served bus service.
She urged the union leaders to let their members vote on management's offer by 27 October.
Commuters braced for the worst and showed little patience for the arguments of unions or managers.
A four-day strike in July saw commuters lining up early in the morning for Bart's charter buses and ferries across the bay, and enduring heavy rush-hour traffic.
A San Francisco Chronicle writer expressed a prevalent mood of a pox on both your houses. “In my dream, all of the Bart union workers got fired by management, every single Bart manager was fired by the Bart board of directors, and the Bart directors were fired as well. Then all of the fine people of the bay area got to ride to work on the backs of unicorns.”
The San Francisco municipal transportation agency said it has developed plans to help people to get around, including providing two expanded carpool locations.
The key issues during most of the talks had been salaries and worker contributions to their health and pension plans.
Talks began in April, three months before the 30 June contract expirations. The unions initially asked for 23.2% in raises over three years. Bart countered with a four-year contract with 1% raises contingent on the agency meeting economic goals.
The unions contended that members made $100m in concessions when they agreed to a deal in 2009 as Bart faced a $310m deficit. And they said they wanted their members to get their share of a $125m operating surplus produced through increased ridership.
On Sunday, Bart negotiators presented a final offer that includes an annual 3% raise over four years and requires workers to contribute 4% toward their pension and 9.5% toward medical benefits.
The value of Bart's proposal is $57m, Bart spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.
Workers represented by the two unions, including more than 2,300 mechanics, custodians, station agents, train operators and clerical staff, now average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually, the transit agency said. Bart workers currently pay $92 a month for health care and contribute nothing toward their pensions.
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