The train service that I use each day to get to work was on strike a few months ago. The govenor called a 60 day "cooling off" period in order for service to continue for the thousands of users who use BART and also for the unions and BART to come to some sort of agreement. Well, that 60 day period wore off and they are again wrestling with each other to find an agreement. In my opinion the union is asking TOO much and are crazy but, what can I do? Late at the end of each day at 11:59pm they would announce if they will be going on strike. Since they are still negotiating, people have been getting pretty upset having to wait up late or wake up early in order to know if they have to leave for an earlier commute using the ferry, get a ride, or take the bus. It is quite frustrating! They decided that people needed to know earlier than at midnight to know so they moved it last night to 10pm. We don't know when this agreement will come to an end or if and when they will go on strike again. To make matters worse the bus system also threatened to go on strike because their contracts had also ended around the same time that BART's ended. It was decided that they would wait to make a contract decision until a further date, probably due to this whole BART issue. They too threated to strike yesterday and I started to dream about how I may not have to go to work today since there would be no bus or train service!!! It was sounding a little too good to be true haha! even though I wouldn't get paid for the day. But, as I waited for the bus yesterday after work since BART was delayed for an unrelated issue they announced that the bus systems would not go on strike at least for the next 7 days as they too are trying to negotiate a new contract for their workers and BART union workers must be somewhat happy with how things are going because they have not gone on strike yet.
I actually prefer to take the bus. It does cost a little more, it takes a little longer, and it is about 20-25 min walk to get to the station from my work place but, it is much cleaner and quieter. It also drops me off right in front of my house...who could complain about that?
So, I am hoping that all these people can come to some sort of agreement and things can go back to normal around here. It's a little weird now that I think about it...I am so reliant on these buses and trains to get me to work when back home I used to just rely on my car to get me from place to place. I guess that is what working in a big city looks like ☺.
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