On Monday, it was announced that 50 workers from the Golden Gate Bridge District would go on a one-day labor strike Tuesday to voice their disdain with recent proposals surrounding wages and health care premiums. Unions are saying a proposed three-year contract which plans to offer a 3 percent increase in wages will be negated when considering the additional 2 percent increase in health care premiums workers will incur.
The strike was scheduled to place between 6 am and 3:30 pm and will not disrupt the commute as ferry and bus services will run as usual and the Golden Gate Bridge will also remain open, according to local CBS affiliate in San Francisco. Additionally, lane changers are being told to report to their posts.
A bloc of 13 unions that make up the Golden Gate Bridge labor Coalition had announced in August that they would be holding the strike but had not decided on a date for when it would be carried out. CBS notes that the decision to hold the strike on Tuesday was made on Monday.
The 13-union coalition is reportedly comprised of 450 employees have been working without a contract since July, notes CBS.
The last time the Golden Gate Bridge District experienced a strike was on May 1, 2012 in which ferry workers staged a walkout during contract negotiations, as noted by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The day before, a faction of the Occupy movement called the Black Bloc took to the streets in what they referred to as The Strike Starts Early Street Party. Breitbart News reported in 2012 that “‘Street Party” was an innocent-sounding euphemism for direct action–potentially violent–on the street.