[...]
Muni exists mainly to transfer cash from riders and taxpayers to its
largely middle-class and upper-middle-class work force (both management
and labor). In exchange for this cash transfer, they provide as little
mass transit as they can get away with.
This sort of hysterical hyperbole is exactly the best way to ensure
that your ideas are ignored. (And compare this with any commerical
company, which transfers wealth to its management, shareholders and
work force -- usually in that order -- in return for as little as it can
get away with.)
Muni's work rules are, of course, completely ridiculous. One of the
most common questions RM gets is "when there are nine N Judahs in a row,
why can't someone at Embarcadero turn some of them into J, K, L, or M
trains?" The answer is that Muni drivers must be paid extra to drive on
a line other than the one they signed up for that day. Labor
inflexibility like this is one of Muni's most serious problems.
_Somebody_ negotiated those rules: the problem is political, and the
fix must be political. The negotiators just got away with as much as
they could -- "enlightened self-interest" and all that Adam Smith
malarkey. Many of Muni's work rules are ridiculous,
counter-productive and debilitating; but holding all bus drivers
solely to blame for a top-to-bottom dysfunctional organization where
such rules have been allowed to take root -- with the active collusion
of the highest elected office in the city -- is not only unreasonable
but politically inept.
By the way, where was Today's Meritocratic Emilio when the last
contract was pushed through and when Prop E was on the table? Kissing
his boss' rear end, of course! He's a political creature, and the
only reason he appears to give a damn about his present job is to pave
his way to future jobs -- which won't be in the transit field, but
which may be under Brown's wing.
[...]
Remarkably, the left in San Francisco vociferously opposes any real
change to Muni's labor environment. The idea of people making
$20,000/year being unable to get to their work on time, getting written
up and maybe fired because the bus was late, is less troublesome to them
than the idea that a $70,000/year Muni driver might actually be held
accountable for the quality and level of service s/he provides. I
suppose that's one way to redistribute wealth.
This sort of untrue and hysterical hyperbole is exactly the best way
to ensure that your ideas are ignored.
PS I Was A Teen-Aged Libertarian growing up in unionized Australia;
moving to this country showed me there are worse ways of doing things.