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| Berkeley AC Transit Bus Rapid Transit |
Oakland, CA-based AC Transit has declared that contract talks between the Alameda - Contra Costa District Transit Company and the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 192, (ATU) have reached an impasse. AC Transit is working to close an estimated $56 million budget deficit due in large part to reductions in revenue from property taxes. AC Transit is working to reduce labor costs by 8 percent at least; far better than cutting jobs but the ATU fails to see it that way.
AC Transit has been forced to increase fares and decrease service to make up for the revenue shortfall. ATU made an offer but it reportedly wasn't enough to help close the gap: AC Transit seeks $15 million in savings.
What the ATU does not understand is AC Transit's budget problems, like those of the City of Oakland itself, are due to massive reductions in sales and property tax revenue. AC Transit receives a percentage of each dollar of property tax collected in what are called "flood control districts." There's no sign that with the unemployment rate and the credit crunch, those sales and property tax revenues are going to recover to levels of even four years ago.
The ATU really should make a concession and give a salary reduction. It's not AC Transit being mean; what a lot of people don't seem to get is this country has real economic problems and California's really suffering from it. We're letting manufacturing jobs go offshore; the New United Motors Plant that employed 4,000 people in Fremont, California, has closed. And the green jobs effort has not closed that unemployment gap.
Memo to Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 192: we're in trouble, pitch in an help. Don't walk away from talks, or strike.
Thanks!
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