Muni riders say they’re not gonna take it

Hours after Muni drivers rejected a package of proposals designed to save $15 million, I received an invitation to join a Facebook group called March Against Muni.

The group’s list of 10 demands appears freshly plucked from the minds of everyone I know. It includes “no more route cuts,” “no more fare hikes,” “no more rude drivers” and “no more excessive pay.” The group asks everyone who’s fed up with the state of affairs at Muni to boycott the transit agency for the month of March. This includes not buying a March Fast Pass. Because this boycott assumes that some segment of the population has a viable alternative and yet rides Muni by choice (really?), it will be interesting to see how well this works. For my part, I’ve been boycotting that fiasco flotilla since 2006.

You may recall that Supervisor Sean Elsbernd proposed a City Charter amendment for the June 8 ballot that would eliminate the guarantee that Muni drivers are at least the second-highest-paid in the nation. He withdrew that amendment Feb. 4 because, at the time, the drivers union was negotiating a deal that was supposed to save the city millions this fiscal year. But since union members rejected the deal, Elsbernd has vowed to collect signatures to put his amendment on the November ballot.

The March Against Muni kicks off with, you guessed it, a march! It’s set to start at 5 p.m. March 1 at the corner of Powell and Market streets and end at City Hall. Elsbernd would do well to have signature-gathering stations along the route.

Comments

[JC]

Also, to those who push the boycotting of Fast Pass purchases, more notice is required. For the vast majority of folks who get these through pre-tax contributions via their employer, passes are purchased a couple of months in advance.

[Be_devine]

Are these people for real? You hit the nail on the head: Nobody's going to boycott MUNI because nobody rides it by choice and few have any alternative. Sure, the Mission crowd who work downtown can take BART - they probably do anyway. But the rest of us? As much as I agree with what they're trying to accomplish, I will be buying my March FastPass and throwing elbows to get on the horribly overcrowded K train every morning in March.

Nothing makes a movement lose credibility quicker than a failed boycott.

[eric williams]

it's clear and sad that you have a personal issue with the hard working members of the union which operates the city's transit system,we know that the whole nation is in bad times.one thing you fail to understand is that we have family's to support rent,childcare and so on,we would like to do anything and everything to help with this budget issue what you don't know is that our union wants the agency to show it's books, the news that the agency gave to you say's that we the union are to blame for the short fall of the budget.

well let's see four years ago the all management offices were all located at the presidio division and I did say all,now management offices takes up six floors of the office building at #1 south van ness,did you know that the agency spends 16 million dollars on transfers inwhich are a waste when operators pull-in from a days shift we put unused transfers in a big box and the unused transfers are many this happens at all divisions so before you talk about waste tell the whole story.

[wendy phillips]

I can't believe the Muni conflict rages on after all these years. I rode 3 buses to and
from high school in the late '60's/ early '70's. I'm not against unions and fair wages for what
must be a difficult job. But I am against the mean, surley , arrogant drivers who use the union
to bully those who have to ride busses, and pay for transportation that is crowded, dirty, and unsafe.
I no longer live in San Francisco, and to this day do not travel by bus if I can help it.

[Marin St. Love]

I've become a big fan of Muni driver and union booster Eric Williams's unintentionally-hilarious blog comments.

I love how in the comment above, his big fiery demand is that Muni show its books. Muni's budget is presented in annoying detail in a publicly available document that runs hundreds of pages. You can see it at http://www.sfmta.com/cms/rbudget/documents/FY2009-FY2010AMENDEDBUDGETBOOKoptimized.pdf.

It's clear that Williams's sole interest isn't improving Muni operations, but deflecting attention from the driver's union and preserving the status quo in the form of their sweet Charter-mandated deal.

Really, nobody actually argues that the driver's union is the sole problem. But they make everyone dislike them by acting like a bunch of belligerent childish boneheads. Muni's problems are many, but everyone who is serious knows that the Charter-mandated pay is at or near the top of the list.