Transit Strike Shuts Bay Area’s Wall Street

SAN FRANCISCO, July 1 — Bart (Bay Area Rapid Transit) workers struck today and shut the rail system tight. They’re demanding a 23 percent wage hike while the bosses want workers to pay more for their healthcare and pensions. Oakland City workers also had a one-day strike, shutting Oakland’s downtown (see photo). Bart carries over 400,000 people daily and mainly serves to bring the workforce from outlying areas to Wall Street West — corporations, banks, government offices, retail stores and education buildings concentrated in downtown San Francisco.
Bart is part of eight major unionized transit systems in the Bay Area. Its workers belong to Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1555. AC transit workers’ contract (East Bay bus system, ATU Local 192) expired the same day as Bart. So far the leadership of Local 192 and the ATU International have succeeded in dampening the sentiment of many AC workers to strike in solidarity and for their own issues.
Corporate think tanks let the cat out of the bag when they estimated the strike would cost $73 million a day in lost worker productivity. PLP members point to this as a real example of the potential of workers’ power and the bosses’ need of workers’ labor for their profits.
PLP members are building transit solidarity, particularity at AC Transit and MUNI (San Francisco public transit), where we have a long history of organizing. We’re circulating a solidarity pledge for passengers and workers.
Some workers, have taken matters into their own hands by calling in sick, refusing to do extra service or overtime. In contrast, the union leadership has refused to organize anything, leaving members to their own individual decisions. Some passenger groups and non-profits have come forward to unite with transit workers against  fare hikes and service cuts. (More next issue.)