The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce joined other Bay Area business groups today in calling for an end to a BART strike that began at midnight.
The chamber, in coalition with other Bay Area business groups, called on BART management and the striking unions to end the strike and return to the bargaining table, officials said today.
See all Appeal coverage Of BART’s second strike of 2013 here
“This unnecessary strike is crippling Bay Area mobility, productivity and commerce,” said Bob Linscheid, the chamber’s president and CEO, in a statement.
“The region’s business community has come together to urge BART management and unions to resume negotiations and end this strike now and get our region moving again,” Linscheid said.
The statement follows one issued yesterday by the Bay Area Council and other business groups placing the blame for the strike on the unions, saying union leaders should put current proposals to a vote before walking out on strike.
“This will be a catastrophe for the Bay Area that is completely unnecessary, unjustified and will cause untold hardship for the hundreds of thousands of working people who rely on BART every day,” said John Grubb, chief of staff of the Bay Area Council.
The Bay Area Council Economic Institute estimates that a strike could cost the Bay Area upwards of $73 million per day in lost worker productivity.
A previous three-day strike cost commuters and the regional economy more than $219 million, chamber officials said.
In addition, traffic delays added 19 million pounds of carbon dioxide into, chamber officials said.
