Strike Threat Hovers Over Bay Area Transit

The San Francisco Bay Area’s heavily used rapid rail system, BART, is poised to shut down if contract negotiations with its union workers are not resolved by midnight Tuesday.

Union leaders and Bay Area Rapid Transit negotiators returned to the bargaining table Friday after unions representing 2,500 workers rejected management’s latest offer.

Two of the unions lowered their demands for a 26.5% raise over three years to a 21.5% increase over the same period. BART is offering the workers a four-year deal, with raises totaling 18.5%.

“BART’s proposal will not cut it. We think where we’re at now is a good place to be,” said Larry Hendel, president of Service Employees International Union Local 790, who was also speaking for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555.

Union leaders said they want raises for BART employees to offset the high cost of living in the Bay Area, pointing to the transit system’s increased revenues in the last four years as a sign that it can afford the proposed raises. But BART officials said they must use the revenue to improve aging trains and stations, which each day move about 300,000 commuters from one end of the bay to the other.

“Even if we had a pot out there of money, which we don’t, that money has to go somehow to serve the public, not just the employees,” said BART spokesman Mike Healy. “We don’t know why they would reject [the management proposal]. It’s a pretty good offer.”

The third union, representing about 230 BART workers, began preparing a separate counteroffer Friday. Norma del Mercado, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993, said BART basically told them to “take it or leave.”

The rail system, built in the 1970s, has come under pressure from union leaders and rider associations recently to replace the aging and damaged facilities. Elevators and escalators are often broken and shut down. Ticket machines gobble money or break down entirely.

BART may need to increase fares because of the contract negotiations, and to cover the improvements and proposed expansions that would create new routes farther away from San Francisco, Healy said.

While commuters start looking for other ways to get to work after the Labor Day holiday, the Metropolitan Transit Commission is asking BART riders to brace for the worst. Ferries and cross-bay bus routes are expected to be so crowded that riders will be turned away.

Four years ago, a similar wage battle with BART resulted in a strike that crippled the area for six days. Since then, BART ridership has steadily increased.

“There was a fair amount of chaos in 1997. It’s a matter of being prepared for the worst-case scenario. Anyone who can choose not to travel really should do so,” said Carol Kuester, a strike planning coordinator for the transit commission. “The message is to avoid needing to be out and about.”

Commuters remember the chaos of the September 1997 strike all too well.

“It was horrifying. People were lining up around the corner to carpool,” said Dorothy McCarter, 37, who rides BART to avoid slow, cramped buses and street gridlock in Berkeley.

“It’s going to be a bear, period,” another passenger said.

On trains racing up and down East Bay routes during rush hour, commuters intently read updates of the negotiations. For many, BART is the only way to get to San Francisco’s downtown financial district.

“I was thinking of taking the day off Wednesday to see if it does go into strike, to see how it flows. Then I’ll weigh out my possibilities,” said 33-year-old Noah Chandler, who commutes to the city each morning from the East Bay.

Chandler said he will stay with friends in San Francisco if a BART strike occurs.

“There’s no way out of San Francisco with the traffic” during a strike, he said.