Time to Restructure Failing BART System

By Edward Ring
10/14/2020
Of all the public agencies facing financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, public transit has taken the biggest initial hit. The reasons for this are obvious: when there’s a lockdown and businesses are closed, commuters stay home. And of those still fortunate enough to have places to go, few want to board...

TAGS: BART

BART’s ‘Superpower’ is the Ability of Its Board to Ignore Financial Reality

By Will Swaim
09/24/2020
COVID-19 has throat-punched the American transportation industry. United, Delta and American airlines are cutting staff through furloughs, layoffs and buyouts. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is pursuing voluntary layoffs so aggressively that business reporters are starting to put quotes around the word “voluntary.” The company that provides school bus service to the San Francisco Unified School District furloughed its 260 drivers until classrooms...

TAGS: BART, COVID-19

BART’s Wasteful Union Contracts

By Marc Joffe
02/14/2017
Last week we learned that a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system janitor managed to boost his annual compensation to $271,000 by clocking an enormous number of overtime hours – hours that apparently were often devoted to sleeping in a subway station closet. The revelation reminds Bay Area commuters that BART’s unreliable service comes with...

TAGS: BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit District

BART Janitor Earned $271,000 Last Year

By Catrin Thorman
11/04/2016
Janitor Liang Zhao Zhang cleans transit stations in downtown San Francisco, but he really cleans up with his six-figure salary. Last year, the Bay Area Rapid Transit employee earned just over $271,000. Zhang’s high earnings come to light this week, just days before BART will ask voters to approve Measure RR, a $3.5 billion bond aimed at “relieving...

TAGS: BART

BART Transit Strike Begins in San Francisco Bay Area

By Mike Shedlock
10/18/2013
Editor’s Note: UnionWatch contributor Mike Shedlock provides some perspective on the BART strike that began today, their 2nd this year. One impasse relates to the refusal of management to submit to binding arbitration on the remaining areas of dispute. Good for management. The possibility of getting an even worse result in binding arbitration is the...

TAGS: BART, BART strike, Bay Area Rapid Transit District, public sector unions

Governor Brown Fighting Obama Administration to Defend Pension Reform

By Editor
08/20/2013
Remember AB 340, the pension reform successfully pushed by Democratic Governor Brown, that even Governor Brown acknowledges is only a first step towards making public employee pensions financially sustainable? Well even AB 340 goes too far according to Obama’s new Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez. As Dan Borenstein of the Contra Costa Times reports on...

TAGS: BART, public sector unions