BART Strike Disrupts Morning Commute

It looked more like a Sunday afternoon than a Monday morning at the Fremont BART station.

At 8:30 a.m., only a dozen cars were in the parking lot. No one stood at the ticket machines. There was no rumble of trains or screeching of metal wheels against rails. 

It was day one of the 2013 BART strike, and all of the action was taking place along the perimeter surrounding the station.

A couple dozen BART employees held picket signs at the station's front entrance at Civic Center Drive and BART Way, chanting and marching between BART Way and Walnut Avenue.

Commuters were catching VTA and AC Transit buses to get to San Jose and Oakland.

However, the last bus chartered by BART to take commuters to San Francisco had just left, much to many would-be BART riders’ dismay. And those hoping to get to the Tri-Valley area were out of luck.

Erika Gonzales, 27, got off from her graveyard shift working security in San Jose early Monday morning. She caught a VTA bus to the Fremont BART station, only to learn there was no way to get home to her four children in Livermore.

“I was supposed to be home hours ago but BART is closed and my husband had to go to work so I’m stressing out,” Gonzales said. “I feel it’s inconsiderate.”

Raman Cheladurai, a 27-year-old software engineer from Fremont, got to the BART station at 6:30 a.m. hoping there might be a bus to get him to his job in San Ramon. No luck. By 8:30 a.m., he was directing confused commuters where to go as he awaited a ride from a co-worker.

“Hundreds of people are coming down here. They don’t know about the news,” Cheladurai said. “Many people have gone back home and chosen to work from home, but not many people have that option. Either they have to take leave or figure out some other way to work.”

See more reactions in the video above.

BART workers walked off the job Monday morning after contract talks broke down Sunday evening. The employees' contract expired at midnight.

There are no new labor negotiations scheduled at the moment. Both sides are waiting to hear from state mediators on when they should return to the bargaining table.

This is the Fourth of July holiday week, so there aren't as many commuters as there would be on other weeks.

Nonetheless, the drive to San Francisco was a rough ride on Monday. After a relatively smooth drive early on, traffic began to back up on all freeways leading to the Bay Bridge.

KCBS Radio reported at 8:30 a.m. that traffic headed on northbound Highway 880 to the bridge had backed up to Hesperian Boulevard in San Lorenzo.

It was reportedly taking some motorists an hour to get from the MacArthur Maze to the other side of the bridge.

BART tried to ease the pain a bit by bringing in charter buses to pick up commuters at the Walnut Creek, East Dublin/Pleasanton, Fremont and El Cerrito del Norte stations.

According to a bus driver, about a dozen charter buses to San Francisco ran between 5 and 8:30 a.m. at the Fremont station, transporting about 20 passengers on each bus.

At the Walnut Creek Station at 8 a.m., there were less than a dozen people patiently waiting in line for a bus.

Greg Arcia, a Pittsburg resident who usually catches a BART train in that city, drove to the Walnut Creek station to grab one of the charter buses. He planned to stay in San Francisco overnight with some relatives and then return home on Tuesday evening.

David Brown, a striking train operator, said the picket line was "the last place we wanted to be," but he felt BART management offered the workers little in contract talks.

"I'm disappointed they didn't bargain in good faith. They wanted us to go on strike. They really gave us no choice," Brown said at the Walnut Creek station.

Rick Rice, a BART spokesman, disagreed with that statement.

"We absolutely did not want them to go on strike," he said.

Rice said BART management had made a substantially higher offer on Saturday and was willing to discuss that proposal more on Sunday evening when union negotiators left the bargaining table at 8:30 p.m.

BART has offered members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 155 an 8 percent raise over four years. They also want workers to contribute more to health benefits and pensions.

Union negotiators point out BART employees haven't had a raise in four years. They say the 8 percent pay hike would be almost wiped out by the increase in benefit and pension contributions.

Brown, a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said BART workers have good jobs and they want to keep it that way. He said they need to keep pace with the cost of living.

"I don't see gas prices going down. I don't see grocery prices going down. Everything is going up," said Brown, a 16-year BART employee who lives in Bay Point with his wife and two children. "We deserve to have a raise just like everyone else."

Brown said about 70 percent of commuters on Monday morning gave them a positive response.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to warm up even more. Commuters' anger may rise with it.

If the strike resumes, commuter buses will continue to run from 5 to 8:30 a.m. from the Fremont BART station to the West Oakland BART station; a connecting bus will take them into San Francisco. 

Patch editor David Mills contributed to this report.