Wading Through the BART Propaganda

A second Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) strike was narrowly averted Monday when Governor Jerry Brown intervened to order a seven-day investigation of the labor dispute during which workers are banned from walking out.  BART management, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1555 are still miles apart on the basic issues of pay, benefits and worker safety.  Management is hoping to essentially freeze real wages at their current level after four years of cuts while workers fight to increase their real take home pay, institute new safety measures and protect current health plans and pensions.  The entire union-management dispute is a case study on the dangers of union givebacks, media’s anti-union bias, management’s leveraging of the recession to cut wages and declining solidarity in American society…