The resolution of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system strike should leave taxpayers feeling mugged. BART’s already well-paid union employees will get a 15.4 percent raise over four years. Yes, they will begin to contribute to their pension costs, and yes, they will pay slightly more for their health insurance, and, yes, there are some new safeguards against their rampant abuse of overtime pay.
But by any measure, these workers will continue to receive far more generous pay and benefits than comparably educated and skilled workers outside government. An average transit union worker’s pay will reach $88,300 by 2017. Workers also will all receive $500 to $1,000 in cash bonuses when BART’s annual ridership tops goals by as little as 1 or 2 percent. That’s dubious in any circumstance, but it’s crazy when one considers that taxpayers subsidize every single passenger ticket by at least $6.
We agree with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom: “At the end of the day, the public lost — badly.” It’s time for the Legislature to strip BART’s unions of their right to strike. Such strikes aren’t allowed in most major U.S. transit systems because they give unions undue leverage. BART’s outrageous compensation practices are testament to how that leverage has been used in California’s second-largest metropolitan area. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/oct/23/bart-resolution-bad-deal-for-public/
Now, if this union were in Wisconsin, they would never would have gotten away with from ripping off the taxpayer under Gov. Scott Walker's Act 10, which reduced the public employee influence and benefitted Wisconsin taxpayers.
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