Today in Who Wants To Be The Biggest Dick? news (sorry, Donald Trump, we know you do but you can't wineveryday), some contestant with dial-up and a direct ticket to hell offers this submission . It's a Tumblr page called BART Bratz -- get it? sooo funny! -- to make fun of those lousy BART workers who went on strike this week for, like, half a second because they have not had a cost-of-living adjustment in YEARS even though the cost of living in the Bay Area
I&rsquo;m outside the Bay Area now, and have never kept up on BART, because San Jose, but from what you say it sounds like train operators are probably being paid about correctly. Base salary equal to median <i>household</i> income (+ OT + probably better than average benefits and retirement) sounds like a pretty reasonable deal. It certainly doesn&rsquo;t compare with the compensation of the imported geeks, but it&rsquo;s better than, e.g., teachers.
Now, I appreciate that the local (SF-peninsula) cost of living (which, as always, really means the cost of housing) has spiked significantly in the last few years. (It&rsquo;s also gone up in the outlying Bay Area, but not as sharply*.)
This naturally reinforces the desire for a COLA among the folks who actually live in the City. As an aside, didn&rsquo;t SF used to have rent control? But from what you&rsquo;ve said, it doesn&rsquo;t look like that is totally justifiable for the whole workforce. That is, they aren&rsquo;t overpaid, but they aren&rsquo;t significantly underpaid, either.
Anyhow, I have no problem at all with unionized workers trying to negotiate the best deal possible for themselves. That&rsquo;s how it&rsquo;s supposed to work. But to get my sympathy** (beyond acceptance), I need to feel that they are being reasonable. I&rsquo;m not up on this at all, so I&rsquo;ll ask you: are they being reasonable?
* Anecdote: I no longer live in the Bay Area because I am retired and/or too old to get a job in my former line of work. So I moved. Sometimes we have to react to circumstances.
** I am fully aware that no BART worker gives a shit about whether I sympathize with them or not.
I&rsquo;m outside the Bay Area now, and have never kept up on BART, because San Jose, but from what you say it sounds like train operators are probably being paid about correctly. Base salary equal to median <i>household</i> income (+ OT + probably better than average benefits and retirement) sounds like a pretty reasonable deal. It certainly doesn&rsquo;t compare with the compensation of the imported geeks, but it&rsquo;s better than, e.g., teachers.
Now, I appreciate that the local (SF-peninsula) cost of living (which, as always, really means the cost of housing) has spiked significantly in the last few years. (It&rsquo;s also gone up in the outlying Bay Area, but not as sharply*.)
This naturally reinforces the desire for a COLA among the folks who actually live in the City. As an aside, didn&rsquo;t SF used to have rent control? But from what you&rsquo;ve said, it doesn&rsquo;t look like that is totally justifiable for the whole workforce. That is, they aren&rsquo;t overpaid, but they aren&rsquo;t significantly underpaid, either.
Anyhow, I have no problem at all with unionized workers trying to negotiate the best deal possible for themselves. That&rsquo;s how it&rsquo;s supposed to work. But to get my sympathy** (beyond acceptance), I need to feel that they are being reasonable. I&rsquo;m not up on this at all, so I&rsquo;ll ask you: are they being reasonable?
* Anecdote: I no longer live in the Bay Area because I am retired and/or too old to get a job in my former line of work. So I moved. Sometimes we have to react to circumstances.
** I am fully aware that no BART worker gives a shit about whether I sympathize with them or not.
Workers are takers, duh. Create some jobs if you want to have a voice.
The BART riders should lift themselves by their bootstraps and carry themselves to work. That&#039;s how bootstraps work, right?
They should hire Mitt Romney to run BART since he saved the Olympics one year.