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At least one BART union agreed Saturday to put the transit agency's contract proposal to a vote, but commuters looking for a quick end to the 2-day-old strike should hold off on the celebrations. Speaking from the entrance of the shuttered Pittsburg BART Station, Antonette Bryant, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, said she expects that vote to result in a "resounding no." ... A spokeswoman from Service Employees International Union Local 1021, BART's largest union, declined to say whether that union also would allow a vote on the contract. ... With no negotiations scheduled, both sides said Saturday...

<p>The two workers, whose names weren't immediately released, died at the scene after they were hit by an eastbound train, sources close to the investigation said.</p>

(Reuters) - Commuter rail workers in the San Francisco Bay Area went on strike on Friday after talks with management over a new contract broke down, throwing the morning commute into chaos in the traffic-clogged region. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) management and employee unions have been at loggerheads for months over pay and benefits for more than 2,000 train drivers and other union workers who are demanding large pay raises in part to offset being asked to contribute to their pensions and other benefits. On Thursday, union officials said both sides had finally agreed on pay and benefits,...

OAKLAND -- Exasperated BART union leaders announced they would shut down trains Friday morning after a breakdown at the bargaining table Thursday, setting the stage for the second Bay Area commute nightmare in three months. A wild round of back-and-forth press conferences at 4 p.m. brought to a live TV audience an outpouring of emotion from sleep-deprived negotiators and the departure of the nation's top mediator. Although union leaders have been threatening strikes for the past week, they sounded much angrier and more direct this time, and talks ended altogether. "Unfortunately, yes -- we are on strike as of midnight,"...

Truck drivers protesting government corruption in today's "Ride for the Constitution" may have been intimidated by government officials and law enforcement, according to Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, and former Department of Justice prosecutor. Klayman revealed to MRCTV in an exclusive interview that the truckers were allegedly threatened with arrest and advised to stay out of D.C.

This week, Carnegie Hall stagehands who make on average $419,000 a year went on strike, forcing the cancellation of a gala that would have benefited nonprofit artistic and education programs. The dispute between the 122-year hall and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Union, reportedly the first ever strike at Carnegie Hall, was resolved on Friday.

Tens of thousands of Boston schoolchildren were left stranded this morning by what the school district called an “illegal work action” by hundreds of bus drivers who refused to drive their routes today, forcing T bus drivers and even Boston police to jump in and ferry kids to school.“I hope this is all worth it,” Roxbury mom Corvette Rankins — who ferried her 8-year-old to the Blackstone Elementary School — said in response to the drivers. “Were your children stranded or did you take them on strike with you?”Only 30 of 650 buses are on the road today, the district...

Via Charles Cooke. Imagine it. Imagine a movement so selfish that it would sabotage the operations of a venture on which vast numbers of people depend simply to gain leverage for its own agenda. Then imagine that that movement grew in numbers to the point where it could elect its own bought-and-paid-for politicians to do its bidding. Who knows how much havoc it could wreak? When you think about it, Democrats are right: It really is a sort of terrorism. Am I awake? Youtube

On Thursday, President Obama launched into yet another broadside against Republicans over the government shutdown while in campaign mode in Rockville, Maryland speaking to a construction company. Oddly, after veering off teleprompter, he likened Republicans shutting down the government to striking workers shutting down a business: “Everybody here does their job, right? If you’re working here and in the middle of the day you just stopped and said, ‘You know what, I want to get something, but I don’t know exactly what I’m gonna get, but I’m just gonna stop working until I get something, I’m gonna shut down the...

Protesters rallied in Michigan and nationwide recently to claim that wages at fast food restaurants are too low. Here’s an alternative compensation schedule. These workers should be paid as much as doctors and lawyers and executives. Those in turn should all get the same salary. Every member of their staffs should make that amount too. The same principle should prevail in government: A receptionist at a state agency would make the same as the governor; a custodian cleaning a public university’s toilets would be paid exactly what the university’s president gets. Everybody gets equal pay. All across the board, throughout...

Last year the American Truckers Association prepared a report for Congress highlighting the susceptibility of the nation’s just-in-time delivery system, the majority of which is made possible by the transport and delivery of freight. In the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a war that drives fuel prices through the roof or even a natural disaster such as a solar flare that renders electronic trucks inoperable, there would be a “a swift and devastating impact on the food, healthcare, transportation, waste removal, retail, manufacturing, and financial sectors,” according to the report. The backbone of commerce in the United States...

WASHINGTON -- In an interview Monday, President Obama responded to a surprising late proposal that could head off a military strike against Syria. The Syrians agreed to a Russian proposal to put their chemical weapons under international control and destroy them. I talked to President Obama about that, and about a threat Syrian dictator Bashar Assad made during an interview with Charlie Rose. SCOTT PELLEY: Can you accept the Russian/Syrian proposal? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, we don´t know the details of it yet. But I think that it is a potentially positive development. I don´t think that we would´ve gotten to...

In 1971 as I was sort of recovering from service  in Vietnam in a VA Hospital, there was John Kerry testifying before Congress  on television about the "atrocities" committed by the American troops in Vietnam, reminiscent of Genghis Khan - as Kerry explained it. At the time, I had other things on my mind, and I did not fully realize the treason he was committing. In the Twelfth Century, at the same time Islam was manifesting destiny by killing and otherwise subjugating infidels as they  into the  Middle East, North Africa and Europe, the infamous Genghis Khan was taking over country after...

(CBS News) The Pentagon has expanded the list of potential targets for a U.S. military strike on Syria, based on intelligence indicating that the Assad regime has moved around equipment used to deploy chemical weapons in anticipation of a potential attack. A Pentagon official insisted to CBS News correspondent David Martin that the scope of the operation has not changed, which President Obama has described as limited and tailored. The military began adding new targets to the list as Syrian troops started moving equipment "they think might be targeted and hiding some of it so the U.S. cannot find it...

With U.S. diplomats secretly talking with their Russian counterparts behind the scenes at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg in hopes of avoiding a stalemate over Syria, publicly Moscow warned that a military strike on Syria could have catastrophic effects if a missile hit a small reactor near Damascus that contains radioactive uranium. But a U.S. official attached to the United Nations delegation told MailOnline that while Obama's admission on Wednesday that U.S.-Russia relations have 'hit a wall,' the president's team is overreaching with an ambitious proposal that has no chance of success. The talks started last week and are...

Courtesy of Newsy.com Thousands of Walmart employees are gearing up for a massive strike Thursday. Last week, fast food workers walked out on their jobs — demanding $15 an hour. Walmart employees are seeking similar wages.In a Facebook post, the group, called OUR Walmart, says it is the “lifeblood” of the company and demands... “Walmart, it’s time to reinstate Associates who have been unjustly fired. We’re ready to stand up until this happens and we, the Associates, are paid a wage we can live on.” The group claims 500,000 employees are making less than $10 an hour and says the reality of...

MOSCOW, September 3 (Itar-Tass) - Launching of two ballistic missiles in the Mediterranean water area testifies to the ongoing U.S. preparations for air strikes against Syria, a top-rank Russian military expert said in an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass Tuesday night. The U.S. and Israel actually wanted to watch the reaction to the launch on the part of Russia, China and Iran, said Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, Ret. From 1996 through to 2001, Gen Ivashov was chief of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Main Department for International Defense Cooperation. He is President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems at present. He believes that...

Britain's militant postal union yesterday warned of “inevitable” strikes as the dispute over plans to privatize Royal Mail becomes increasingly bitter. … Despite the union’s upcoming ballot, the Government said it will not alter its decision to sell shares in Royal Mail in this financial year. The Royal Mail said industrial action, or the possibility of disruption, was damaging to the business, especially in the run-up to Christmas, which is the busiest time for the company. …

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned Monday that a U.S. military strike on his country could spark a regional war. Assad also challenged the U.S. and France to provide evidence of his regime's alleged use of chemical weapons against Syrian citizens. In comments made to French newspaper Le Figaro, excerpts of which were published online Monday and reported by the Associated Press, Assad warned of potentially dire consequences to action by the U.S. He said that the Middle East is a "powder keg" and that no one knows what might happen if the West launches a military attack on Syria. He...

YOU’RE FIRED. This is a teachable moment for America and I sincerely hope that the owners of all the fast food franchises where employees walked out on strike today take full advantage. Fire them all, every last one of them. There are hundreds of thousands of people in America right now who are desperate to find jobs of any kind. This national demonstration by fast food employees, which is happening on the eve of Labor Day weekend (sheer coincidence) is nothing more than the latest McProtest by leftists and union supporters. The only time flipping burgers is a career is...