"In the far more political environment of public employee unions, it's
much more complicated and the dynamic is different. Public employee
unions are big and powerful players in politics. Their ability to raise
money (hard and soft) as well as provide large amounts of in-kind
resources give them leverage other unions don't have.
...Muni's work rules are, of course, completely ridiculous."
And no one in power has any incentive whatsoever to challenge the status quo.
Certainly not the mayor, who benefitted from the TWU's shoe-leather activism
in the last election, and is likely to do so next time around. Nor the Board
of Supervisors, which unanimously approved the current labor agreement under
pressure from the mayor and the TWU. It's hard for me to imagine any
meaningful reform short of a ballot initiative requiring a competitive
bidding process for the delivery of Muni service. Otherwise, why should the
TWU--with its government sanctioned monopoly--ever clean up its act? As time
goes on and the work rule agreements become increasingly intolerable, the
logic for such an initiative gets ever more compelling, IMO.