BART To Strike On Monday

Union employees of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) are set to begin a strike on Monday.

Bay Area residents face the prospect of a commuting nightmare Monday morning after the president of BART's second-largest union announced that it will go on strike at the end of service Sunday night. If Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, which represents about 900 train operators, station agents and power workers, follows through on its strike threat it will be the transit agency's first strike since September 1997, when a five-day strike created havoc for commuters. At a news conference outside the union's office across the street from the Lake Merritt BART station, ATU Local 1555 President Jesse Hunt said, "We have no choice" but to go on strike after BART board members voted 9-0 earlier in the day to impose pay and work rules on the union, effective immediately. Hunt cited the fact that the implementation of terms and conditions of employment brought members of the ATU under a contract "far worse than the contract that was in front of our union this week" as the main reason behind the strike.

BART averages 340,000 passenger trips on weekdays.