Victory To The BART (SF Bay Area)Workers!!
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SAN FRANCISCO — Talks to end a four-day transit strike were to resume Monday afternoon after two unions offered to change work rules behind the walkout that has made life miserable for 400,000 commuters and snarled Bay Area traffic.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and the unions hoped to reach a settlement by 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) so train service could resume Tuesday on the nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system, said BART spokesman Rick Rice, KCBS News reported.
Both sides had been meeting with a federal mediator over the weekend and earlier Monday. BART officials met with the mediator to discuss the proposal by the Amalgamated Transit Union and Service Employees International Union to modify rules governing implementation of new technology but to retain control over safety-related issues.
A special meeting of the BART Board of Directors scheduled for Monday afternoon was canceled because of the mediation talks.
Commuter frustration with the second strike in four months boiled over Monday, as traffic leading to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was already backed up for miles by dawn.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission began offering $5 gift cards for Peet's Coffee and Tea to drivers willing to pick up passengers at "casual carpool" locations near the bridge. Over the weekend, a few commuters began posting online ads asking for — and offering — rides downtown.
"Anyone driving to the city today hit me up please," tweeted a user named Heaven Haile on Sunday. "This bart strike is gonna kill me."
"BART sucks!" read Emily Pharr's Craigslist ad. Pharr, 42, a program manager who works in Palo Alto and lives in Oakland, was offering rides downtown in her Dodge Caravan from the North Berkeley BART station, starting at 5:30 a.m. Monday.
"It's just really crazy," she said of the rail strike, which threatened to enter its fourth day. "Half a million people can't go to work without a hassle — and it's not a little hassle, it's a huge hassle."
Pharr was asking prospective passengers for "a kind donation of $10 to cover my gas and my time." She offered to take the special high-occupancy HOV carpooling lanes clear to Palo Alto, south of the city. By midday Sunday, she had filled two of five available seats in the minivan.
Amalgamated Transit Union 1555 President Antonette Bryant over the weekend said she planned to take a final contract offer before members for a vote, but she expected it to be rejected. "It's our hope we can get it to members this week," Bryant told the Associated Press. She expected the vote to be "a resounding no."
Union officials said there was general agreement on some economic issues, but the two sides came to an impasse over work rules, including the length of the workday and when overtime pay kicks in.
Despite the strike, two workers inspecting tracks in Walnut Creek were hit and killed by a BART train Saturday afternoon as it returned from routine maintenance, transit officials said. The four-car train was being run in automatic mode under computer control at the time, said Paul Oversier, BART's assistant general manager.
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the fatal accident, the first for a BART employee in five years.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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BART, unions discussing deal to get trains rolling Tuesday.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and the unions hoped to reach a settlement by 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) so train service could resume Tuesday on the nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system, said BART spokesman Rick Rice, KCBS News reported.
Both sides had been meeting with a federal mediator over the weekend and earlier Monday. BART officials met with the mediator to discuss the proposal by the Amalgamated Transit Union and Service Employees International Union to modify rules governing implementation of new technology but to retain control over safety-related issues.
A special meeting of the BART Board of Directors scheduled for Monday afternoon was canceled because of the mediation talks.
Commuter frustration with the second strike in four months boiled over Monday, as traffic leading to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was already backed up for miles by dawn.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission began offering $5 gift cards for Peet's Coffee and Tea to drivers willing to pick up passengers at "casual carpool" locations near the bridge. Over the weekend, a few commuters began posting online ads asking for — and offering — rides downtown.
"Anyone driving to the city today hit me up please," tweeted a user named Heaven Haile on Sunday. "This bart strike is gonna kill me."
"BART sucks!" read Emily Pharr's Craigslist ad. Pharr, 42, a program manager who works in Palo Alto and lives in Oakland, was offering rides downtown in her Dodge Caravan from the North Berkeley BART station, starting at 5:30 a.m. Monday.
"It's just really crazy," she said of the rail strike, which threatened to enter its fourth day. "Half a million people can't go to work without a hassle — and it's not a little hassle, it's a huge hassle."
Pharr was asking prospective passengers for "a kind donation of $10 to cover my gas and my time." She offered to take the special high-occupancy HOV carpooling lanes clear to Palo Alto, south of the city. By midday Sunday, she had filled two of five available seats in the minivan.
Union officials said there was general agreement on some economic issues, but the two sides came to an impasse over work rules, including the length of the workday and when overtime pay kicks in.
Despite the strike, two workers inspecting tracks in Walnut Creek were hit and killed by a BART train Saturday afternoon as it returned from routine maintenance, transit officials said. The four-car train was being run in automatic mode under computer control at the time, said Paul Oversier, BART's assistant general manager.
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the fatal accident, the first for a BART employee in five years.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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