Maintenence Workers Already Striking?

Anyone know what the deal is with the northwest escalator out of the Embarcadero station? In my years of riding BART, I see that it goes out of service quite often, but rarely for this long -- I think it has been three weeks to a month at this point.

I can't say that no work is being done on it, because I get to work early (7am) and leave fairly late (7pm), so the work could be going on during the day. I also noticed within the past couple of days that some of the steps had been removed near the top. But I can't help noticing the irony of the HUGE sign next to the nonworking escalator that says "Your Fare Dollars At Work" and talks about how it is a new, high functioning escalator.

I will have to give credit to the janitorial staff, however. The broken escalator seems to turn into people's trash can. Each evening there is a ton of garbage thrown onto it. And each morning the trash has been removed.