War Against Transit Workers-AC-BART Transit Workers & Community Speaks Out At AC Bd Meet

These videos provide more information than anything we receive on the KPFA 6 p.m. evening news. It is always interviews with workers that help us understand what is going on at BART.

FIRST: The horrific health and safety issues need to be discussed constantly. They should read aloud the 2 paragraphs from the workers' website, http://www.wemakebartwork.com/

"Leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and SEIU Local 1021 presented their documentation at BART headquarters prior to legal filing. BART Police figures show more than 2400 serious crimes committed on the transit system over the last three years – in five stations alone. There were more than 1,000 physical attacks on riders in the same time period, and more than 100 physical attacks on BART employees. Many of these crimes are so serious that BART police are required to report them to the FBI, as they include homicide, rape, physical battery, aggravated assault, and serious property crimes."

"Batteries against station agents have quadrupled since your 2009 hiring freeze. Almost 1,100 BART workers and patrons have been physically attacked in the past three years. The number of assaults on the system in the first four months alone of this year is as high as all of last year. Station agents have been punched, pushed down stairways, assaulted by gangs, robbed, threatened and spit on. Train operators are facing an increasing number of traumatic events on the lines."

SECOND, as to salaries, in addition to the following, remind everyone when you speak that you need at least $120,000 a year to buy a house in the Bay Area and if you cannot afford a house, you cannot afford a family. The second reminder must be that you are NOT paying into Social Security. Here is a paragraph from the same workers' website, http://www.wemakebartwork.com/

"As a Station Agent with 20 years experience, my salary is $61,000. Were I to retire today, my pension would be $21,000 a year – and I’m not eligible for Social Security. And our pensions are not breaking this system. BART’s pension system is 92% funded — an envy of many in the business."

THIRD, the emphasis on BART'S SURPLUS must be made and cries out for ZERO FARES for riders, a good way to build public support. Looking at the fare calculator at http://www.bart.gov/tickets/calculator/index.aspx, we see that fares are almost $5 each way from many locations in the Bay Area to San Francisco, so a roundtrip is almost $10! That is at least $200 a month for commute costs alone, plus the need for a car to get around the Bay Area if you live outside San Francisco, and all the other usual rent/mortgage, food, clothing, utilities expenses. THE RIDERS ALSO PAY THE 8.75% to 9% SALES TAX AND FEDERAL AND STATE INCOME TAXES TO BART, in addition to fares. In SF, it is 8.75%, in Berkeley, Oakland it is 9%, other locations in California it is down to 7.25%, all ridiculous as there should be no sales tax since we have 750,000 millionaire households in California who should pay more taxes to the state's general fund, also known as tax the rich. For more California sales tax rates, see http://california-sales-tax-rate.findthedata.org/

Labor must go on strike to advance and stay on strike until you win everything you ask for. It helps that AC Transit also will strike, as apparently will Oakland city workers. The broader the strike, the stronger labor is, the sooner labor wins everything it demands. One of your demands is that the bathrooms be reopened at all BART stations, long overdue and this demand also helps build public support. It is ridiculous for train stations to have no bathrooms.