Muni Operators Stage Their Own ‘March Against Muni’
Photo by Jamison Wieser
In a dramatic turn of events, Muni operators were out in force at yesterday’s “March Against Muni” at the Powell cable car turn-around, letting the marching Muni riders know that the drivers are not to blame.
“For those keeping score at home, the marching Muni drivers out-marched March Against Muni. And this was no mass movement; perhaps 200 drivers showed up compared to 50 to 100 March Against Muni folks,” Joe Eskenazi reports in the SFWeekly.
More reports from our transit news sources:
- – Marching Muni Drivers Overwhelm ‘March Against Muni’ (SF Weekly)
– Transit operators barge into march (Examiner)
– Drivers, riders march to protest Muni cuts (ABC 7)
– March Against Muni: Anti-Muni Protest @ City Hall (a slideshow from SF Weekly)
It might have seemed like the operators were out protesting the protesters. But the operators claim that not to be the case at all. According to the Examiner, their spokesperson says the union’s intent yesterday was to mark “the beginning part of working together.”
In any case, @munialerts declares, “Rally over. Union won.”
More photos after the jump.
Photo by @munialerts: “MAM guy utterly lost control of crowd. Union taken over.”
Photo by @ThaddyB
Photo by @munialerts: “Cops keeping an eye on things, also blocking slogan.”
What? No comments? Maybe I can provoke a few. The TWU did everyone a disservice by pulling the bullshit they did. As informed as many of the drivers are, what I heard just boggled the mind.
– They proposed eliminating transfers.
– They rallied against having someone like Julie Kirshbaum… because the drivers already know how many people they’re picking up (gosh, can we blame the inefficient spider web of routes on the drivers and TWU now???)
– They spouted off about how operations make up less than half the budget, while claiming that the only other expenditure soaking up the rest of the budget was ‘administration’. No talk of capital investment eating up a large part of the budget (gee… I wonder why).
Chanting mindless anti-management chants is one thing (and par for the course). On the other hand, if your discourse goes beyond mere chants… it would probably be in their best interest (at least from a PR perspective) to utter less self-serving things.
Don’t be fooled. Reform INCLUDES changes in the union contract. Muni drivers are allowed to not bother to show up for work, not call in, and they STILL keep their jobs. What if you or I did that??
Muni drivers earn more than teachers. Is that fair??
I completely agree! There are many operators out there abusing the system and they are spoiling it for the ones who do follow rules and are good at what they do. I would fully support reform in all areas of Muni! I am also glad to see that many operators showed up to the protest!