The union is extremely disappointed

The unions gave a 72-hour notice on Thursday night of a possible strike by 2,400 workers on a rail system that carries 400,000 passengers a day and serves as a critical link in the San Francisco area's transportation system.The unions say they are at loggerheads with management over wages, benefits and safety issues. They contend that despite a proposed 8 percent pay rise over four years, workers would still'e home with less money after paying proposed increased contributions to pensions and health-insurance premiums.Brown's action came after BART management asked him to declare a cooling off period to allow negotiations to continue without a disruption in the public transit system for at least 60 days, a BART statement said.

"The union is extremely disappointed," said Josie Mooney, a negotiator for one of the unions. She said that the unions and the public "waited for 22 hours on pins and needles" for a new contract offer but got nothing.BART workers walked off the job in early July for the first time since 1997, before agreeing to a 30-day cooling-off period and returning to work after four days. They said they would strike again on Monday if a contract was not reached by midnight.Last month's strike forced BART passengers to work from home, drive, carpool or crowd onto a limited number of buses and ferries for prolonged, frustrating'mutes.Traffic-choked highways, particularly across the Bay Bridge linking San Francisco to East Bay'munities, left some in the generally labor friendly area upset with the strikers.

A poll by the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored policy group, found 70 percent of 475 area residents polled opposed a strike, while 41 percent said they wanted the transit agency to use available resources to raise employee'pensation.The poll, conducted in early August, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.Thomas Wong, 30, who rides BART between his Pleasant Hill home and his job in San Francisco, said he feels little sympathy for the workers."They're so much better off than a lot of other people in the Bay Area and around the country, and they're asking for more," he said, adding that his one-hour'mute turned into a 2 1/2-hour nightmare during last month's strike.

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