BART workers warn that if they strike again early next month, they’re prepared to stay out a long time — and they just might hold most of the cards.
BART, by its own admission, wouldn’t be able to train enough replacement train operators for months, thanks to its current contract with drivers.
The transit agency ran skeletal service between West Oakland and downtown San Francisco during a three-month lockout in 1979, and considered doing so again during the five-day walkout this month. The idea has come up again as a stopgap solution should BART’s unions walk out when the current armistice ends Aug. 4.
It would be a Herculean task, however.
For starters, BART has only 10 qualified operators who are not in the Amalgamated Transit Union.
If management wanted to add more, it would have to put them through special training mandated under the union contract signed after the 1979 labor dispute.
It’s not that becoming a BART driver requires a lot of experience. The trains are automated, so operators drive them only during emergencies, and then only to speeds up to 25 mph.
To qualify for training, a candidate needs a high school diploma or GED, a valid California driver’s license and three years of experience “interacting with the general public in a variety of ways,” according to the posted job description.
Operators also must pass a 15-week training course in safety practices. Under the agency’s contract, however, anyone is barred from even taking the course as long as union BART operators are on the job.
In other words, the only time BART can begin training replacement operators is when drivers go out on strike.
So if there is a strike, it will take months to get replacement operators in the trains —unless BART files paperwork with the California Public Utilities Commission to change the training requirements. And who knows how long that would take?
In the meantime, with little apparent movement in the talks, the unions say BART is calling around to its retirees in hopes of lining them up if there is another strike.
Asked if BART was calling for drivers or seeking a change in the training time, spokesman Jim Allison would say only, “We have no comment on either question.”
It’s starting to get interesting again.
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