This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now newsletter for BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), a rapid transit rail system in the San Francisco Bay Area – March 10, 2025
Workers organized in ATU Local 265 at the Valley Transit Authority (VTA) which operates the light rail and bus systems in the South Bay, are on strike. One of the key issues is wages. VTA Management made a “final last offer” of 3% a year, over the next 3 years. The union is demanding 18%. Management also wants to cut the length of medical leave before termination and refuses to deal with outstanding safety questions.
Like other places in the Bay Area the cost of living, especially housing, is insane. A while back some VTA drivers parked their RVs in the yard parking lots to sleep there instead of driving long distances home, only to eat, sleep and then head back to an 8 or 10-hour shift. This became public, and management was embarrassed and created a “RV program” and pushed the RVs into one yard. No more RVs were allowed. And now, when people retire, no one is allowed to take their place.
If the strike goes on, get ready for the stories of greedy VTA workers. They will find someone who has worked their ass off picking up as much OT as possible, and wave that around as if that’s the average wage for a bus driver, mechanic or service worker.
Let them get behind the wheel of a bus, just for one 8-hour shift. Or clean, wash or repair buses in this winter weather.
Meanwhile, the management of Bay Area transit systems are trying to get “in synch” – with scheduling and other operations. Imagine if the workers at BART, VTA, MUNI and other systems got in synch. Then the chump change offers and threats wouldn’t have the impact they do today
