Children, Place Nice

BART Strike

Let’s imagine a hypothetical situation for a moment. Let’s say you have a job that allows you to work from home from time to time, and on this particular day, you’re trying to meet a deadline on some sort of project. Now let’s say you were on the phone with your hypothetical sister the day before and agreed to let her drop off your two hypothetical nephews at your home today for a couple of hours so she could take care of a few important errands. They’ll already have had lunch, and they’ll practically entertain themselves, she said. Sounds fair enough, right? Let’s say the kids are school-aged, around first and third grade; old enough to understand good and bad behavior and the consequences that accompany both choices. When they show up at your place, they both have backpacks full of Legos. More Legos than they could possibly need in the two hours they’ll be there. You make sure they’re comfortable, and then go back to your project. Let me know if you need anything, you say. For a while, there aren’t any issues. Everyone is happy. But after the initial honeymoon period, they start fighting over the Legos. Fighting so much that you have to get up and mediate. There are so many Legos to play with, you say. Just share with one another. They agree, and you go back to work. Minutes later, they’re at it again. More tantrums. You break it up again. This cycle continues for the duration of their time with you. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to get to work. Finally, your sister returns, sees what’s been going on, takes the Legos away, and puts the kids in opposite corners of your home. She’s disappointed in your lack of childcare abilities, and your clients are disappointed that you didn’t meet their expected deadline. You weep softly.

Sound frustrating?

Welcome to the 2013 BART strike.

Sunday night, Governor Jerry Brown (your sister) stepped in (took away the Legos) and instituted a seven-day hold (sent them to time out) on another imminent BART (nephew) strike (tantrum), temporarily saving commuters (your clients) from a repeat of the five-day strike (first tantrum) which had impacted them (prevented you from getting to work) only a month ago.

Woof.

Negotiations have been going on for quite some time, with both sides rarely giving any ground and seemingly at a standstill for the last several weeks. The week leading up to the 4th of July featured crippling traffic, hours-long lines at ferries, and an entire city that lost any sympathy for either side of the debate amongst transit workers. The two sides allegedly met for TWENTY-NINE hours this past weekend without successfully reaching an agreement, which leads me to believe that the negotiations must go something like this:

Mediator: Okay everyone, we’ll be commencing today’s negotiations in attempts to bring resolution to the issues we’ve been discussing these past weeks.
Union: We want more money.
BART: LOLZ.
Union: But…more money?
BART: Nerp.
Union: Derp?
BART: Nerp.
Mediator: Okay well it seems like tensions are running a bit high right now; why don’t we break early for lunch? Napa’s not too far away – Domaine Carneros, anyone? Maybe meet again in 5-6 hours? What’s that? We told the interns they’d get a full day of pay? Okay, just keep the clock running. No one will know the difference.

It’s understandable that these types of negotiations will get both activists and defenders of heads of businesses alike a bit riled up. Unions versus corporations? This ideological battle has been going on for ages. But unlike the DC nurses strike (which was about patient care but actually about money) or the Chicago teachers strike (which was about evaluation criteria and classroom composition but actually about money) or the NFL players strike (which was about player safety but actually about money), the BART strike is only about money. In kind of a dick move, the management team made a point of highlighting the workers’ salaries and compensations to the press, but seriously – 90K a year on average, not having to contribute to their own pensions, a low, flat rate for healthcare regardless of dependents, cost-of-living raises AND regular bonuses…what the hell?! These are the most well-compensated transit workers in the country, and somehow neither side can get it together. THERE ARE A TON OF LEGOS, KIDS. Also, if you’re thinking to yourself that you don’t really hear about this stuff happening in other transit systems across the country, it’s because in many of them, strikes are ILLEGAL.

The fact that Governor Brown has had to intervene and create an investigatory panel is perhaps the most frustrating part of it all. Two groups of working adults and mediators – whose only job is to, you know, mediate – were so ineffective at reaching a compromise that the government had to step in to fix things. I repeat: the government, who at this time is mostly known for not being able to get things done, had to help someone else get things done without further harming the public. This isn’t the NFL referee strike, where consumers dealt with a minor inconvenience and drop in the quality of a product. This is as if the referees left, had no replacements in the interim, and also took away all the footballs. I think I can speak for a substantial portion of the public by saying that I really have no care whatsoever as to who comes out ahead in these negotiations. The people who suffer the consequences of inaction have no say in the debate. Their day-to-day schedules and ability to make a living are at the whims of people they will never meet. They won’t see fare reductions or an increase in service at the end of this. They just want to get where they’re going in a reasonable manner, for the transit infrastructure of a major metropolitan area to operate as it was designed.

Please, children. Place nice.

Andrew Rose

About Andrew Rose

Andrew Rose is a writer and editor for Rookerville. He also manages a travel blog for his friends and family. His book, “Seizure Salad”, is a work of fiction - not in that it is a tale of fantasy, but in that it does not actually exist.

Comments

Share This Post On

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: