SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco’s commuter trains lumbered back into operation for the first time in five days early yesterday after union workers reached a tentative labor deal with management, ending a strike that paralyzed the nation’s fifth-largest rapid transit network.
Officials for the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, system clinched a settlement late on Monday with two unions that represent more than 2,000 striking employees, capping several months of contentious contract negotiations over wages, benefits and workplace rules.
Due to the late hour of the deal — announced at around 10pm Monday (0500 GMT Tuesday) — and the logistics of ramping up the system from a standstill to full capacity, BART executives said normal service was unlikely to resume before the Tuesday afternoon rush-hour.
Train service was limited early on Tuesday, and BART officials warned riders to expect 30- to 45-minute delays as employees returned to work. “I feel very happy when I hear the BART strike was over,” said Eva Gallegos, a certified nurse assistant from San Leandro whose commute had been frustrated by the strike.
She added that it took over an hour and a half to drive from her home to her job in Berkeley. She took side streets and said she saw freeways “packed like a parking lot.”
At a usually bustling BART station just off clogged Interstate 80 in El Cerrito, the parking lot was not as full as usual on Tuesday on a cold and foggy morning as trains resumed full service. No station agent was on duty.
The strike, a continuation of labor tensions that led to a four-day walkout in July, halted a commuter rail system that serves more than 400,000 riders a day in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and suburbs.
Reuters
