Posted by Dave, a resident of the Birdland neighborhood, on Jul 8, 2009 at 8:50 am

Let's review the demands BART unions are pushing for. Here's a union that wages are already the highest of any rail system in the nation.In addition, BART employees enjoy benefits almost unheard of in the private sector. A BART employee that retires at 63 with 40 years of service collects 97% of their top salary! And the employee doesn't contribute a penny to their pension! Then one of the most lucrative health care plans anybody has. Employee pay $82 a month regardless of number of family members, while BART covers the rest of the premium which can be as high as $1,868 a month. And here the union is demanding a 3% hike while BART is facing a $100 million shortfall over the next four years. Talk about no concept of reality!

Posted by ???, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Jul 8, 2009 at 9:18 am

Just fire the union and hire non-union employees. The budget would then balance and productivity would increase. In this economy, you'll have 10x more applicants than available jobs.