Honey / 2 Senator Pierce

S.W._____

A BILL
To ensure that union actions do not disrupt critical mass transportation services to the public while preserving the
right of workers to organize and negotiate for fair pay and safe working conditions-- Federal funds shall be available
to public transportation entities to assist with re-structuring union contracts; federal funds may be with held from
entities that do not comply with new regulation.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Transportation Union Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Striking public transportation union workers disrupt significant numbers of people.
2) The use of public transportation has increased substantially throughout the years.
3) During peak trans bay commute hours, there are over 55,000 BART riders. BART directly serves SFO, the 10th
busiest airport in the country, bringing 40 million visitors to the Bay Area each year. 10% ride BART.
4) Striking public transportation union workers result in significant financial impact to the public and to private
business.
5) Economists estimated the first day of the 2013 BART strike cost the region $73 million in lost worker productivity
alone.
6) Large scale disruption of public transportation systems create congested traffic conditions due to the increase in
the number of private vehicles on public highways and freeways that can interfere with the movement of emergency
vehicles.
7) An increase in the number of private vehicles on public highways and freeways due to large-scale disruption of
public transportation systems adversely impacts air quality.
8) The strike by BART union workers had a costly environmental impact on the Bay Area and wasted fuel resources,
data assembled by the Bay Area Council showed that the increased traffic congestion generated almost 16 million
pounds of carbon, and wasted almost 800,000 gallons of gasoline each day during the strike.
9) Workers right to strike is protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
10) Union public transportation workers need additional alternatives to striking to resolve grievances.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) This section shall apply to workers that are organized and/or represented by a union, and that are employed by a
public transportation system that services more than 25,000 people per day. A strike by employees shall not result in a
complete shutdown of the public transportation system. During any strike, a sufficient number of employees shall
report for work to maintain a minimum sixty percent operation of the transportation system. Contracts for employees
shall clearly and specifically stipulate the conditions for communicating, filing, and negotiating grievances for
employees. Changes in compensation shall be tied to changes in revenue. Changes in health benefits shall be tied to
changes in health care industry costs and revenue. This will minimize grievances related to changes in benefits that
do not appear to be commensurate with increases in revenue by the transportation system.
B) The United States Department of Transportation will be responsible for ensuring that employment contracts
between workers and transportation agencies comply with the requirements of this statute. The additional revenue
needed by the United States Department of Transportation to oversee the requirements of this statute will be from
Federal taxes and from fees collected directly from each transportation agency to which this statute applies.
C) Transit agencies found out of compliance with this law will forfeit part or all of its Federal funding. Employees
out of compliance with this law also may face disciplinary action suspension suspension without pay pending
investigation, or, termination. This act shall be enacted on January 1, 2016.

There is a problem facing this nation. One in which in a single occurrence, within a single, moderate size region of
the country, affected hundreds of thousands of people, cost the local economy $73 million in one day due to lost
worker productivity, wasted millions of gallons of gasoline, and pumped almost 16 million pounds of carbon into
the environment. This is the amount of damage one mass transit strike in the San Francisco Bay area was able to
do. While it is important to support workers right to organize into a union that gives them a voice to ensure they
will be treated fairly and safely at work, a mass transit agency must be treated differently than a private company.
A strike at a private company hurts the company with relatively little collateral damage. However, for an entity that
directly serves the public, as recently demonstrated in San Francisco, the collateral damage from an all-out strike is
unacceptable and needs to be regulated by law. Therefore, to minimize harm to the general public, to minimize the
cost to the overall economy, and to reduce environmental impacts, a law needs to be enacted to control strikes at
public transportation services. The BART strike of 2013 in the San Francisco Bay area, affected not only BART
riders, but also every commuter on the roads and freeways in the area. During the strike, enough workers stayed
way from work to cause a complete shutdown of the BART system. This stranded the 200,000 people who ride
BART round-trip each day. Many of these 200,000 people had to resort to driving to their destinations adding to
the already congested conditions on Bay area roads. Nationwide, 10.8 billion trips were taken on public
transportation systems in 2014. This provides an indication of the number of people that can be affected due to
striking public transportation workers in this county. Many people stranded during a public transportation strike
cannot make it to work or must work limited hours affecting the overall economy and the income of individuals. A
strike that shuts down a large public transportation system not only impacts the revenue of that system, it also
affects the overall economy of the region and the incomes of individuals that rely on the system to get to work
each day. These impacts are due to the people stranded during public transportation strikes that cannot make it to
work or must work limited hours. During the BART strike of 2013, Economists estimated the first day of the
BART strike cost the region $73 million in lost worker productivity alone. The 2013 BART strike lasted four days
resulting in substantial economic impact to the region. Similar impacts can be experienced anywhere in the nation
that depends on a large public transportation system. The City of New York estimated in 2005 that a strike by
Metropolitan Transit Agency workers would cost the City between $440 million and $660 million dollars each day.
The substantial cost to a city and the general population due to a strike at a regional transportation agency is
unacceptable and must be regulated. In addition to the economic impact to individuals, many of the individuals
affected by a transportation strike will be forced to travel by car that will result in an environmental impact. The
shutdown of a public transit system due to a strike can adversely impact the environment to a degree unlike the
shutdown of just about any other entity. The shutdown of a public transportation agency can force thousands of
people to travel by car, which emits far greater amounts of pollution into the atmosphere than a mass transit
system. In the San Francisco Bay area, BART trains are 100 percent electric and 53 percent of that power comes
from clean renewable sources such as hydroelectric and solar. When there is a clean source of transportation like
this, it reduces carbon emission and keeps the earth from becoming more polluted than it already is. During the
2013 strike by the BART union workers, according to data assembled by the Bay Area Council that shows
increased traffic congestion is generating almost 16 million pounds of carbon, and wasting almost 800,000 gallons
of gas every day. The strikes by the union workers are having a costly impact on the environment; BART is an
eco friendly way of transportation and without it the pollution of the earth will worsen. There needs to be a balance
between the leverage that union workers have when negotiating salary, benefits, and workplace safety against the
greater need to protect the environment and the economy. Union strikes of public transportation agencies are an
inconvenience to the general public, costs the economy millions of dollars each day, and emits 16 million pounds
of carbon into the environment. Public transportation is imperative to this country and is one of the main ways this
country can fight global warming and minimize dependence on foreign oil. There is no escaping a degraded
environment.