At the Commonwealth Club last night, I asked the audience which side the audience would support in a BART strike. The answer was management by about nine to one. There was little love for the BART unions.

I have sympathy for any group of workers whose pay has stagnated. We are all in the same boat. But the public does not like being held hostage to a public transportation system which it generously funds.

Jerry Brown guru and Assembly candidate Steve Glazer has been pushing for a law to prohibit transit workers, including BART workers, from striking. You can link to his petition here. John Wildermuth reported on Glazer in this recent story. Three months ago, when readers suggested such a law, I scoffed that Sacramento never would pass such a measure. But if BART workers strike, all bets are off.

As Glazer argues, transit workers “should never strike, regardless of the state of negotiations. A transit strike is enormously disruptive to the regional economy. This is not about special interests, but what’s good for the community and the region.”

Andrew S. Ross wrote this column about why BART workers should not strike. Peter Hartlaub wrote this pox-on-all-their-houses blog, “Negotiation Update: I will never forgive BART for any of this!”

You might say that the BART unions are like the Tea Party House Republicans of Bay Area labor. If they actually vote to strike and strand workers from their jobs, they will be running headlong off a cliff, like lemmings, and people will cheer when they fail. You are better than this, people. Please do not strike.

Source: http://blog.sfgate.com/djsaunders/2013/10/15/bart-workers-and-the-tea-party/