He's turned into a real Republican as governor.
"New transit strike averted in San Francisco area; Governor Brown orders seven-day inquiry into stalled talks" by Norimitsu Onishi | New York Times, August 06, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO — A second strike in a month by employees of the San Francisco Bay Area’s main commuter railroad was averted early Monday after Governor Jerry Brown intervened in the stalled negotiations.
Brown ordered a seven-day inquiry into the labor dispute, guaranteeing service for the Monday commute. He was responding to a request by the railroad’s management for the intervention under a state law that allows him to act if a strike would cause significant disruption to public transportation or endanger public health.
The governor urged both sides to reach an agreement....
The Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s two largest unions, representing 2,400 train operators, station agents, maintenance workers, and other employees, staged a four-day strike in early July after their four-year contract expired.
Under pressure from state mediators and with negotiations deadlocked, the management and the two unions, the Service Employees International Union and the Amalgamated Transit Union, had agreed to a 30-day cooling-off period that restored service. The extension ended Sunday night.
Brown’s order came after Tom Radulovich, the president of BART’s board of directors, had sent a letter to the governor requesting his intervention and a cooling off period of 60 days, said Rick Rice, a spokesman for the transit authority....
Little progress in the negotiations was made in recent weeks, and both sides remained so far apart on key issues that union officials issued a three-day notice of a possible strike Thursday. Commuters were bracing for another stoppage at BART, which is used by 400,000 riders a day.
The inquiry ordered by Brown is expected to clarify the sticking points in the labor negotiations, but some labor leaders were immediately critical.
“Our hope is that the governor’s board of investigation will reveal how little time BART management has spent at the bargaining table in the past 30 days, compared with how much time they’ve spent posturing to the media,” Roxanne Sanchez, the president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said in a statement.
Brown named to the board his senior adviser Jacob Appelsmith, director of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Associated Press reported.
He also named Micki Callahan, San Francisco’s director of human resources, and Robert Balgenorth, president emeritus of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, who both have union backgrounds.
The board will be working under the threat of a potential strike involving another Bay Area transit agency, as a union representing about 1,800 Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District bus operators, mechanics, dispatchers, and other employees gave notice of a strike Monday.
Both sides in the BART dispute had been under increasing pressure to avoid a strike. When BART workers went on strike in July, the transit service was shut down for four days, leading to clogged roadways and long lines for buses and ferries.
?
That's not the way I remember it.
At issue are disagreements over wages and benefits. Union officials have argued that members deserve higher wages than those proposed by management because they accepted a wage freeze in contract negotiations during the economic crisis in 2009.
Arguing that the benefits of BART workers are more generous than those of other public workers in the Bay Area, management officials have pressed them to start making contributions to their state pension plans and to increase their health insurance payments from the current level of $92 a month.
It's all such a contrast with the record profits of banks and corporations in this golden age.
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"Train strike jams San Francisco area" Associated Press, July 02, 2013
OAKLAND, Calif. — Faced with a transit strike, San Francisco Bay area commuters got out the door earlier than usual Monday and encountered crowded roads and lines for buses and ferries after Bay Area Rapid Transit train workers went on strike.
However, rush hour did not come to a standstill as feared, and some travelers who used carpool lanes and other options added relatively little time to their commutes.
Corporate and bu$ine$$ pre$$ me$$age to the union: YOU DON'T MATTER!
Two of BART’s largest unions went on strike after their contract expired the previous night, halting train service for the first time in 16 years. The walkout promised to affect more than 400,000 riders who use the nation’s fifth-largest rail system and also affect every mode of transportation. Officials said another 60,000 vehicles could be on the road, clogging highways and bridges throughout the region.
Traffic at a toll plaza of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was heavier than usual early Monday. People also lined up to take buses that were leaving from a few Bay Area Rapid Transit stations.
Alameda-Contra Costa Transit buses into San Francisco carried more passengers, with some waiting for more than a half-hour to board, riders and bus drivers said.
The strike was called after an 11th-hour effort failed to produce a new contract by the deadline of midnight Sunday.
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"Rail talks resume amid strike in San Francisco" Associated Press, July 05, 2013
OAKLAND, Calif. — Striking San Francisco Bay Area rail workers and transit agency officials returned to the bargaining table on Thursday for talks that one union leader described as ‘‘frustrating.’’
Joe Bomberger with the Service Employees International Union told reporters as he entered the negotiating site in Oakland that Bay Area Rapid Transit officials were not ‘‘substantially addressing’’ any of the safety concerns that the unions have for the public and workers.
Bomberger was then pulled away by another union official. The two sides have been told by a state mediator not to speak to the media.
The strike is in its fourth day, though commuters got a reprieve from crowded buses and gridlock on the roads because of the July 4 holiday.
But clogged roads and...... arrrrrrrrgghhhhh!!!!
Sorry about the ROAD RAGE, folks, but that is what happens when you run into a pile of AmeriKan media s***!
BART is the nation’s fifth-largest rail system and carries about 400,000 commuters each weekday.
The two sides negotiated into the night Wednesday. BART issued a statement, saying it was sorry that the actions of the unions had caused such a tremendous disruption.
The strike began early Monday after talks broke off. Negotiations resumed Tuesday as political pressure and public pleas mounted.
Key issues in the labor dispute include salaries, pensions, health care, and safety.
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UPDATE: Threatened transit strike in San Francisco put on hold
