20 People Picket to Support MUNI Drivers Free Speech

There may well be a MUNI wildcat strike at the end of the month. But those drivers and others who participate in it are warned that 1. city ordinance specifically prohibits any city employee from striking or taking any labor action while a contract is in place, as one is now. 2. The mayor's office has already made a statement that this will not be tolerated, and 3. any city employee who is AWOL for 6 days is terminated. The city sends a separation letter on the 6th day. Failing to show up for work means you have abandoned the job. Last year, a guy was trying to organize a walk-out of some people at SF General. He, along with his co-organizers, were immediately threatened with suspension and termination if they proceeded. They did not. The guy went home and killed himself. That' s sad, but he could have been responsible for dozens of people losing their jobs. Drivers will stay on the job if they want to keep the job. This has nothing to do with "solidarity" and everything to do with keeping a $70,000 a year job with full benefits and a pension. How many of those do you think you'll find out there?

i work at SFGH--he didn't just try to organize a walkout. There was a 'sick-in' in radiology. They didn't try it, they did it---and some folks got disciplined but not fired.

Muni drivers make about $14 per hour which is about $29,000 per year. They have to work about 70 hours per week to receive $70,000 a year, which is not enough to support a family in San Francisco. You need at least $100,000 a year to support a family. The medical, dental, pension and union grievance procedure benefits Muni drivers receive should be received by the entire workingclass as a matter of law. That is, we all should have a national healthcare system, including dental, paid for with our tax dollars instead of paying for the military, prisons and police, guaranteeing free medical-dental care to all who live here from cradle to grave. We also should have sufficient retirement money to live comfortably, which Social Security could provide if the rich were taxed on all their income from all sources. All workers should have a union grievance procedure and the right to strike.

I look forward to a Muni strike to stop the fare increases, and if a Muni strike is not sufficient, a general strike should be carried out in this City. It is long overdue that labor fight back now.

Democratic election-frauding "mayor" Gavin Newsom is a union buster with his support of this attack on Muni drivers . He is also viciously anti-tenant and anti-rent control. His latest attack on tenants, who are most of the workingclass of San Francisco, removing pro-tenant Sabrina Saunders from the Board of Appeals, and replacing her with the daughter of that vicious warmonger, Clinton's Sec of State Albright, the daughter formerly a deputy city attorney and if she is like her mother, most likely, pro-landlord, may be found at:

editors, please fix the overlong URL that makes this page unreadable

MUNI drivers make $14 an hour? Suuuuuuuure, they do. I suggest you look at a wage scale for a career driver and find out how wrong you are. The salary and benefits total nearly $80,000 a year, with free health care, a pension, lots of vacation, sick time, floating days, lieu days, etc. I work for the city and I know how it works. And to the person above who works at the hospital, you can call it whatever you want, it was an illegal work slowdown and they were called on the carpet and threatened. The city has the law on its side here. As to the notion of a general strike - never gonna happen. The public won't stand for it. Your problem is that you think the average person sees some "solidarity" with union workers. Sorry, but non-government union workers are 8% of the workforce. Add in the government unions and you have 12% of the workforce which means 88% of working people are not union. Wait till BART strikes and see how much "solidarity" there is. Public employees have an obligation to show up for work and serve the public who pays their salary. If MUNI drivers walk out, they will be told to go back to work and if they don't they will be terminated. Bet on it.

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