Stable line assignment via bid and seniority is not the cause
of unreliable service on Muni. You can see this if you consider
that this is standard in the transit industry. For example, roughly
the same system exists at the L.A. MTA. Until the last few years,
missed runs on the L.A. bus system were rare....maybe one a month.
It was regarded as being of such importance that, if even *one* missed
run occurred, the division super. would receive a call from top
management by 10AM that morning, i.e. he'd be called on the carpet
and he'd better have a good story. (L.A. MTA's service reliability
has deteriorated very badly in the last couple years. Mainly this
is due to aging of the fleet and declining mechanical reliability,
partly caused by failure to schedule adequate replacements of aging
buses. Buses are like cars...as they get older, things break more
often, they become more maintennace-instensive. This both increases
the cost-of-ownership of the fleet as well as worsening reliability.)
Look at this from the driver's point of view for a moment. If you
were a bus driver, would you like to be subject to arbitrary re-assignment
as to time and line at any time at the whim of the dispatcher or
line supervisors? This would very likely lead to cronyism (kissing
ass to get a better assignment) or subject drivers to vindictive
actions. Having a line assignment creates a bit of stability in the
life of the driver and gives them a bit of control over the job.
It might be that there are would be other ways to accomplish this
than seniority and line bid, but that happens to be the system that
has evolved, in part because labor/management traditions in this
country tend to limit unions to having a say only by placing limits
on exercize of management power. (European labor/management systems,
like the German works councils, provide more positive mechanisms
for workers having some say.)
Moreover, I think it very unlikely that most people would put up
with this sort of arbitrary re-assignment at *their* workplace.
Suppose you're hired as a cell tech by PacBell. Your job is
to fix problems at field sites. You get to work one day and the
boss says, "Oh, the receptionist didn't come today, so you're going
to answer the phones and make coffee for the 15 visiting execs
I'm hosting today." Or suppose you're a deputy DA and the District
Attorney orders you to spend the day re-arranging office furniture.
You get my point, I take it. Most people would be likely to object
to this sort of arbitrary re-assignment. For them to attack
Muni bus drivers for wanting a similar element of control in their
work lives is, frankly, rank hypocrisy. Moreover, it is unnecessarily
divisive.
Tom Wetzel