Community Corner

BART Strike: Calm But Long Commute On Day One

Commuters catch charter buses as BART workers picket

It looked more like a Sunday afternoon than a Monday morning at the Walnut Creek BART station.

Only about 30 cars sat in each of the uncovered parking lots at 8 a.m. The first floor of the parking garage was full, but there were only a handful of cars on the second floor.

No one stood at the ticket machines. There was no rumble of trains or screeching of metal wheels against rails.

It was day one the 2013 BART strike and all the action was happening along the perimeter surrounding the station.

A couple dozen BART employees held picket signs at the station's front entrance at California and Ygnacio Valley Road.

Commuters were catching buses chartered by BART to take them to the West Oakland BART station and then into San Francisco.

Passengers using Central Contra Costa Transit Authority buses searched the BART parking lots, looking for the County Connection vehicles that were picking people up on the station's north side.

BART workers walked off the job Monday morning after contract talks broke down Sunday evening. The employees' contract expired at midnight.

There are no new labor negotiations scheduled at the moment. Both sides are waiting to hear from state mediators on when they should return to the bargaining table.

This is the Fourth of July holiday week, so there aren't as many commuters as there would be on other weeks.

Nonetheless, the drive to San Francisco was a rough ride on Monday. After a relatively smooth drive early on, traffic began to back up on all freeways leading to the Bay Bridge.

KCBS Radio reported at 8:30 a.m. that traffic headed on northbound Highway 880 to the bridge had backed up to Hesperian Boulevard in San Lorenzo.

It was reportedly taking some motorists an hour to get from the MacArthur Maze to the other side of the bridge.

BART tried to ease the pain a bit by bringing in charter buses to pick up commuters at the Walnut Creek, East Dublin/Pleasanton, Fremont and El Cerrito del Norte stations.

At 8 a.m., there were less than a dozen people patiently waiting in line for a bus on the sidewalk on the eastern side of the Walnut Creek BART station

Kofi Ponner, a Walnut Creek resident who works in San Francisco, usually catches the 7:35 a.m. BART train. He had told work he'd be in late.

Connie Wu, another Walnut Creek resident, usually rides her bicycle to the BART station, takes the train into San Francisco and then cycles to the office. Today, the bike was locked at the Walnut Creek station. She was catching the bus, unsure how she was going to get to work once she got into The City.

Greg Arcia, a Pittsburg resident who usually catches a BART train in that city, drove to the Walnut Creek station to grab one of the charter buses. He planned to stay in San Francisco overnight with some relatives and then return home on Tuesday evening.

David Brown, a striking train operator, said the picket line was "the last place we wanted to be," but he felt BART management offered the workers little in contract talks.

"I'm disappointed they didn't bargain in good faith. They wanted us to go on strike. They really gave us no choice," he said.

Rick Rice, a BART spokesman, disagreed with that statement.

"We absolutely did not want them to go on strike," he said.

Rice said BART management had made a substantially higher offer on Saturday and was willing to discuss that proposal more on Sunday evening when union negotiators left the bargaining table at 8:30 p.m.

BART has offered members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 155 an 8 percent raise over four years. They also want workers to contribute more to health benefits and pensions.

Union negotiators point out BART employees haven't had a raise in four years. They say the 8 percent pay hike would be almost wiped out by the increase in benefit and pension contributions.

Brown, a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said BART workers have good jobs and they want to keep it that way. He said they need to keep pace with the cost of living.

"I don't see gas prices going down. I don't see grocery prices going down. Everything is going up," said Brown, a 16-year BART employee who lives in Bay Point with his wife and two children. "We deserve to have a raise just like everyone else."

Brown said about 70 percent of commuters on Monday morning gave them a positive response.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to warm up even more. Commuters' anger may rise with it.



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