SF BART workers offered $90K but still plan to strike

SF Chonicle Articles | Self

[steenkeenbadges]

AMERICANS LAID OFF ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, BUT BART WORKERS WANT ALMOST $100,000 SALARIES!! Greedy, ugly unions and transit workers don't give a damn.

"Unions should be celebrating not complaining about BART's offer that provides them between $80,000 and $90,000 a year in pay and benefit," said BART General Manager Thomas E. Margro. "Yet, the unions have turned it down without even looking at it. BART seeks a settlement, yet the unions continue to talk strike."

[Dog Gone]

No problem. Just raise the BART fare to $25 per trip.

[NativeNewYorker]

Mass transit is the liberal holy grail in their war against "sprawl" and the auto.

How DARE these workers REFUSE to do their bit to keep people out of their evil cars!

Oh, they're govt workers. Never mind.

[Rugby_53]

I already pay $4-$5 to ride the damn thing one way!! What the hell do they want??

[Publius6961]

I can't think of a clearer or more fitting example to argue against public transit.

If public transit in not more convenient and less costly than driving your own car, coercion is the only effective means of forcing people to use it.

The cost-is-no object mentality of the transit unions is guaranteed to make that impossible.
And the American public is not quite ready to abandon their cars even at the point of a gun.

[Publius6961]

I already pay $4-$5 to ride the damn thing one way!! What the hell do they want??

More.
You did sell your car, didn't you?

[.38sw]

And don't forget, if you live in the Bay Area, you pay taxes to help support it. So those of us who DON'T ride it, help support it with our tax dollars. And the fares are high. I have heard that when BART was first proposed and built, it was supposed to be free to the riders, since they are supporting it with their tax dollars. But that promise went by the wayside, and now we have high fares AND high taxes.

[NativeNewYorker]

Oh, I use mass transit virtually every day of my life. I live and work in Manhattan.

But for semi-skilled laborers to turn down a secure $90,000 offer in a punk economy speaks to the power of monopoly unions, not the merits of mass transit.

[CubicleGuy]

Hey, these BART operators gotta be able to afford these high-priced SF Bay Area homes, you know?

Either that, or they have to be able to afford the gas that it takes to commute into the Bay Area from Tracy and Stockton and Modesto every day.

[KC_for_Freedom]

But for semi-skilled laborers to turn down a secure $90,000 offer in a punk economy speaks to the power of monopoly unions, not the merits of mass transit

I'm all for folks in private industry getting all they can, but anyone on the public teet should not be allowed to strike. Thats the price they should have to pay for the security of these kinds of jobs. Oh, and I include firemen, police, and teachers (public) in this sweep.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Everybody get your TREASON! posters made and be ready to let the picketers have it if they strike tomorrow. An overwhelming show of public outrage could end this strike in an hour.

[backhoe]

... this link?

-The Thoreau Institute Urban Growth and Transportation Studies--

has a lot of info & opinion refuting the "urban sprawl," "Lite rail/mass transit" and related items...

[lavaroise]

No wonder we go to China for labor...

[rockfish59]

it's juth those darned, expenthive apartments in 'than franthithco'!!!

the system is run by computers anyway, so why not give the computers the raise?

[Night Hides Not]

I already pay $4-$5 to ride the damn thing one way!! What the hell do they want??

They want you to leave the Bay Area! My sister rides BART everyday...I didn't realize it cost so much. $200 a month! Of course, I bet parking costs a small fortune in SF, plus gas & tolls. All in all, it doesn't sound like it's that bad a deal.

I sure picked the wrong career--I should've been a BART driver. $80-100K per year for what they do? You've got to be kidding me. I'm looking forward to making over $75K for the first time in my life, after graduating from college over 25 years ago! Happily, my $75K goes a lot further down here in Texas, than $90K does in the Bay Area.