Public offers no free pass for BART union
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
08/18/09 2:29 PM PDT
It's a good thing that rail travel and ticket taking are universal things, because the demands of BART's station agents and train operators were so off track that they might as well be on another continent.
So we can only hope the members of local 1555 of the Amalgamated Transit Union have listened loud and clear to the furious public because if they don’t vote to approve the tentative agreement with BART next week and clear the final hurdle to avoid threat of a strike, they are sure to be handed the next ticket out of town.
It would be hard to imagine a scenario in which one organized labor group could bring such widespread disdain, anger and criticism upon itself, but let's give BART’s station agents and train operators their due. They worked overtime to get the hundreds of thousands of faithful BART patrons rallied against them and brought to the surface simmering outrage from a public that has little tolerance for union hardball tactics at a time when people are making huge economic sacrifices.
Word is that the near universal backlash against the union’s demands was the final ingredient to get its leadership to make concessions and reach a temporary settlement. We’ll find out next week if they can still see the light at the end of that long, narrow tunnel.
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