BART Strike Day 2: Traffic Gridlocked, Shuttles Full
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP/BCN) -- Commuters endured another tough morning commute because of a Bay Area Rapid Transit worker strike. Meanwhile, there were no new negotiations scheduled between BART management and its employee unions.
Workers stayed off the job for a second day on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of thousands of commuters to find alternate routes to work.
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Traffic heading to San Francisco on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge around 6:30 a.m. was jammed leading to the bridge's toll plaza. Lines for ferries and buses appeared even longer than on Monday.
BART obtained additional buses to serve the West Oakland Station and transbay passengers. 36 charter buses were serving the West Oakland-San Francisco bus bridge, double the number that were available for the first day of the strike, officials said.
BART Sets Up Extra Bus Shuttles For 2nd Day Of Worker Strike
However, BART alerted riders that most of the charter buses provided from outlying stations were full and could not transport more passengers.
BART spokesman Jim Allison said buses leaving from the El Cerrito del Norte, Walnut Creek, Dublin/Pleasanton and Fremont stations were full. He said the buses reached capacity before 7 a.m.
Allison said there was still limited capacity on buses departing from the West Oakland station. Those buses were scheduled to operate until 8 a.m.
BART spokesman Rick Rice and union officials both said they would like to get back to the bargaining table Tuesday.
"We're reaching out," Rice said.
Negotiations were halted after representatives from Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 left the table on Sunday, hours before their contracts expired at midnight, Rice said.
Rice said that after Sunday's failed meeting at Caltrans offices in Oakland, it was decided that the next negotiations should take place in a new location, but BART officials don't know where—or when—the next bargaining session will happen.
BART spokesman Jim Allison said both sides were in Oakland Tuesday morning and "they are both ready to talk."
SEIU Local 1021 spokeswoman Leah Berlanga and ATU Local 1555 President Antonette Bryant said the two unions were meeting Tuesday morning, but there's no word on a sit-down with BART.
"We haven't seen management in days," Berlanga said Tuesday morning.
Bryant said workers are hopeful talks will resume soon. "We want to get back to the table," she said.
The strike, which began Monday morning, stems from disputes over issues including wages, health benefits, pension plans and safety.
Rice said management has offered to double salary increases from 4 percent over four years to 8 percent over the same period. He said management has also lowered the amount it was initially asking workers to contribute to pension and health care plans.
Rice said Saturday that the unions had come down from demanding a 23 percent salary increase to a 21 percent increase over a three-year period.
"We had some conversation Sunday night, but we've not been able to have a real conversation about our response and our proposal," Rice said.
Bryant said the workers are asking for a 4.5 percent wage increase annually for three consecutive years. The unions have agreed to contribute half a percent more to their pension each year, she said.
She said union workers' pension funds are 92 percent funded by BART, but that BART does not contribute to social security.
She said workers contribute $92 a month toward medical benefits.
Rice said the average annual take-home for workers represented by the two unions, including base salary, benefits and overtime, is about $134,000.
Bryant, a station agent herself, said the average salary of workers in her union is about $60,000 a year.
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