Public outrage weakened BART strike threat LABOR AND POLITICS

Jesse Hunt President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 based in Oakland stands in front of his members and family members at a press conference announcing their members will go on strike Monday morning. BART board of directors voted unanimously Thursday Aug 13, 2009 to immediately impose work rules on its train operators and station agents. less Jesse Hunt President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 based in Oakland stands in front of his members and family members at a press conference announcing their members will go on strike Monday morning. ... more Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Public outrage weakened BART strike threat 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

A wave of anger over a threatened BART strike, averted hours before a Monday walkout, carried a sobering message to employee unions and politicians: In hard economic times, voters in the liberal Bay Area can run out of patience over the demands of organized labor.

The palpable outrage at the 900 rank-and-file members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 - expressed in Internet forums and on SFGate.com, The Chronicle's Web site - helped settle the impasse after politicians, other unions and political leaders pushed for a last-minute deal.

But the politics of the BART settlement present a challenge for powerful labor unions as candidates are shaping their messages for the governor's race next year, experts say.

"A lot of anger reflects the uncertainty of the economy and the pain that a lot of people were already feeling," UC Berkeley Professor Harley Shaiken, a labor expert who closely tracked the BART negotiations, said Monday.

Rather than seeing the strike threat as a sign of workers standing for their rights, he said, the public seemed to be saying, " 'They're getting something while I'm giving up something. That makes me angry.' "

'People are tired'

Barbara O'Connor, professor of political communication at Cal State Sacramento and a public-employee union member, said, "People are tired. They really want to feel that anybody affiliated with government is sharing their pain ... and that is permeating town halls on health care."

In California, where the state budget crisis has dominated headlines and cutbacks have included social services, health care and state parks, voters "are getting angrier," she said. "They see fires, no deal on water, jobs getting worse ... and then someone does something that gores their ox."

Still backing labor

Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, two candidates expected to compete for the Democratic nomination for governor, appeared before the powerful SEIU United Service Workers West conference over the weekend and promised to be "warriors" for labor.

Among 2010 GOP gubernatorial hopefuls, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has promised to "run California like a business" and said she'd lay off as many as 30,000 state workers if elected.

Former South Bay Rep. Tom Campbell said he would get state workers to agree to 15 percent givebacks to balance the state budget, and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has promised to rake through the budget to rid it of waste, fraud and abuse in staffing and pensions.

"The Republicans will say, 'Let's not coddle unions; tough leaders for tough times,' " said Shaiken. "The Democrats will have to answer, 'Let's protect the middle class; there's plenty of pain to go around.' "

But some California voters say they got a different message from labor when the BART strike seemed probable.

"We're in the worst recession - almost a depression - and they are going on strike?" Chronicle reader Mark Aumann wrote last week. "I would welcome the opportunity to have ... a nice stable job with great benefits and a pension. They are lucky to have a job - and I don't get why they feel such an entitlement."

Art Pulaski, who heads the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO, acknowledged that strikes are never easy decisions, especially in tough times.

But Pulaski, who was deeply involved in settlement talks, said the BART difficulties dramatized how "especially in economic times like these, we as a labor movement are working very hard ... fighting for decent wages, for everybody to have health care and a pension," he said. "We're engaged in a strategy to protect the middle class."

Sensitivity needed

Still, O'Connor advises that in the current economic times, labor may have to be especially sensitive to its message.

"Labor unions would be wise to not argue self-interest," she said. "Despite the fact that they too are hurt - many of them are furloughed workers - people don't want to hear it because of prior years of large spending.

"They may just have to swallow hard and go easy. Otherwise, the agenda-setters, particularly the Democrats, may be in trouble."