Queer Oakland

I saw this bulletin posted at a bus stop as I was headed home from school today. Basically it seems that due to the economic downturn negotiations between AC Transit and their employees have bogged down. The employees want to bring in a third party arbitrator to resolve the dispute whereas AC Transit is forging ahead and just impose what they want on their drivers and mechanics. So the employees are left with two options, fight it out in court or go on strike. Or both, if they get really pissed off.

What this means for the rest of us is poorer transit options, higher fares and more headaches. Republicans like to crow about how raising taxes, or even the mere existence of taxes, in a recession would lead to terrible things. Yet the flipside of that is that it is quite often the poor and disadvantaged who are hurt most by bad economic times and things.  Recessions necessarily lead to less revenue for the state as people lose their jobs and pay less in taxes while taking more in government services.

Services, like for example public transit, that often get cut or reduced making things more difficult for people who are already on hard times.

Right now it’s looking like things will go towards arbitration, as a judge ruled today but while it gets resolved – which could take quite a while – AC Transit will continue operating under the new provisions it decided to impose after negotiations fell apart. So buses will continue running for now.