Are public transit workers 'essential'? Should BART workers be able to strike?

[cawacko]

Today is day 4 of the BART workers strike in the Bay Area. To my understanding police and firefighters aren't allowed to strike because they are considered essential to public health and safety. In many big cities transit workers aren't allowed to strike either. In the Bay Area obviously they are.

The Bay Area has long been a place where building new freeways has been difficult. (Hell it took 10 years to rebuild the 880 freeway that collapsed in the 1989 earthquake) The emphasis has been on building around transit hubs with BART being a major factor in that. Needless to say the roads have been a mess and many workers have been unable to get to their jobs in these past few days.

I'm curious what others think about the right to strike for BART workers.

[tekkychick]

I think everyone should have the right to strike. But I know it's horrible when BART workers go on strike. I feel for you all. The last time they went on strike I only had to deal with it on the Monday; then I was out of town the rest of the week, and when I got back it was settled. But even that one day was bad.

Still, I think all workers should have the right to strike.

[cawacko]

I think everyone should have the right to strike. But I know it's horrible when BART workers go on strike. I feel for you all. The last time they went on strike I only had to deal with it on the Monday; then I was out of town the rest of the week, and when I got back it was settled. But even that one day was bad.

Still, I think all workers should have the right to strike.

Even police and firefighters?

[canceled.2021.1]

BART in San Francisco is on strike? I hadn't noticed. I really hope the fine citizens of San Fran are monumentally inconvenienced. It couldn't happen to a finer group of people

[tekkychick]

Even police and firefighters?

Actually, yes. I don't like taking rights away from selected groups.

[Taft2016]

Actually, yes. I don't like taking rights away from selected groups.

lol. Libs'r crazy.

Hey, what if the artillery wanted to go on strike at the battle of Gettysburg?

[StormX]

Here is a thought, upgrade the system so you do not rely on people to run the train. Make it completely automated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...utomation_4.29

[Lorca]

Even police and firefighters?

Sounds like leverage to me. Communities would have to contract out to other local communities for coverage (which they do as needed anyway).

Of course, they might refuse to cross the picket lines out of solidarity.

[/MSG/]

Even police and firefighters?

Why not? The fewer cops out on the street, the safer law abiding people will be.

[cawacko]

When you have the editorial board of the SF Chronicle turning against you you know it is bad. This strike is costing the Bay Area millions in productivity lost over negotiating some b.s. that in almost no other work environment would be an issue. And it's not like people who work at BART are highly trained and educated and can't be replaced. If they opened up these jobs there would be a couple hundred people applying for each spot. Yet they have the ability to shut down transportation and nothing the people can do about it.




BART's archaic work rules expensive, indefensible


Ahalf day off before Christmas, overtime for five-day workweeks, hand-delivered salary-check receipts and paper forms instead of e-mail: These are among the dozens of informal arrangements that have hardened into costly work rules for BART.


Work rules have supplanted pay and fringe benefits as sticking points in the strike that is marooning 400,000 daily riders. The deals have built up in nearly 40 years of BART operations, with each side dodging a major cleanup when labor contracts are negotiated.

The examples are head-slappers, even for union members. Older BART workers who are suspicious of automatic pay deposits ask for a paper copy. But by agreeing, managers have created a rule that entitles all employees to the same treatment. Likewise, the office technophobe who doesn't like using a laptop means that no one can be required to go the time-saving digital way.

BART may be the all-time worst example of "beneficial past practices," a labor law term for informal deals that become legal rights over time. Though many public and private workplaces allow for the makeshift rules, BART has the lowly distinction of not fixing things at contract time.

BART board President Tom Radulovich said work rules governing overtime pay cost $12 million per year. "There's always a need for overtime at transit agencies" with special events and varying schedules, he said. But abuses allow a worker to miss a regular shift and then ask to work an extra day at time and half, he said, a costly work rule quirk that managers can't block because they've repeatedly allowed it.

Work rules create their own bureaucrat world. Among the scores of grievances and employee arbitration cases on file, nearly 90 percent deal with work rules.

Even the most ardent union loyalist would have to admit the e-mail or payroll receipt examples are hard to defend. In our view, equally indefensible - and far more expensive to taxpayers and riders - are rules that lead to overtime abuses or prevent managers from scheduling workers based on the system's needs.

The two sides earlier reached a deal that provides workers with a decent 12 percent pay increase over four years. It's only fair to those of us whose fares and taxes are paying for those salaries - and a region that depends on BART - to include the elimination of archaic and costly work rules as part of the package.


http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editor...le-4914667.php