Submitted on Thu, 08/25/2005 - 9:16pm
Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author and the publisher do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
NO MUNI FARE HIKE! NO MUNI SERVICE CUTS!
MUNI plans to raise the adult fare from $1.25 to $1.50 Raise Youth, Senior and Disabled Fares from 35 cents to 50 cents. Lay off 200 drivers and cut runs on 41 lines
While politicians pick the pockets of MUNI riders, they give away millions to downtown corporations, and pay MUNI director Michael Burns $280,000 per year. MUNI wants us to PAY MORE to WAIT LONGER. We say NO WAY!
If MUNI raises the fare on September 1, as now planned, we should respond with a FARE STRIKE. In a fare strike, passengers ride the bus, but do not pay the fare.
Fare strikes work. Last year, a fare strike in Chicago prevented a planned fare hike. In 1998, a fare strike in Los Angeles stopped a fare hike and pressured LA to buy more busses to reduce overcrowding.
Working class people, students, seniors and the disabled depend on MUNI. Together we can stop the fare hike and service cuts.
Submitted on Thu, 08/25/2005 - 1:58am
Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author and the publisher do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
By Matthew Hirsch - San Francisco Bay Guardian, August 24, 2005
Social change doesn't just happen of its own accord. It happens because of people like Jose Alfaro.
A lifelong San Franciscan who retired in 2000 from his job as a professional cook, Alfaro dedicates himself to making life easier for new immigrants to this city. He's a smooth, natural-born organizer, an affable man who can engage in two conversations at once while handing out flyers to the crowds passing by.
These days Alfaro is helping organize a fare strike to protest the increased cost of a Muni ride from $1.25 to $1.50, which will hurt low-wage workers and the elderly most, he says. (The senior fare increases only to 50¢, but Alfaro fears many still wind up paying more than they should.) He's part of a small, loose-knit group that's calling the strike, but without active support from labor and community organizations that previously opposed the Muni fare increase.
Submitted on Fri, 08/19/2005 - 9:38pm
An inevitable fare hike in the City’s public transportation system, San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI), is distressing the most vulnerable members of society: seniors, disabled, low-income residents and students. Bus fares will be going up from $1.25 to $1.50 this September. Along with higher fares, San Franciscans can expect service cuts to bus lines as well as a reduction in driver privileges and mass layoffs. The reason for these changes is to alleviate a $57 million deficit faced by MUNI. Several citizen groups opposing these measures are mobilizing to fight back. One such effort is a social strike planned to coincide with these fare hikes.
A very visible strike is set to take place just before bus fares shoot up in September. Protestors will be holding posters, handing out flyers and chanting to encourage riders to ignore fare hikes, and to drivers to allow non-paying riders to board busses and cable cars/street cars. The organizers of the strike, Social Strike.net, say that the issues are clear: this is the second fare hike in 3 years; service cuts include grossly slashing drivers’ pre and post operation breaks, which raises concerns about public safety and the betrayal of downtown businesses for not paying fees or higher taxes in subsidizing the transportation agency beleaguered with a deficit for several years in exchange for its bussing thousands of employees working at these downtown businesses.
Submitted on Mon, 08/08/2005 - 12:15am
Beyond Chron (reposted)Monday, Aug. 01, 2005 at 6:33 AM
Marc Norton 01.AUG.05 (The following opinion piece was submitted to the SF Examiner in response to an article on Muni. The Examiner did not print my piece. -MN)
The recent [July 25] Examiner article on Supervisor Tom Ammiano's proposed Muni charter amendment cries out for some historical background. Andrew Sullivan's claim that "Prop E is working" when Muni riders are facing yet another fare increase on September 1, along with fewer buses on nearly every line, is preposterous. It's time to fight back, not to accept the status quo.
The Prop E story actually begins in 1994, when a large and broad-based coalition, led by then-supervisor Sue Bierman, shook up the downtown kingpins by putting Prop O on the ballot. Prop O would have begun the process of setting up a downtown transit assessment district, and would have required downtown commercial property owners and landlords to pay for the huge subsidy they get from Muni delivering thousands of workers and shoppers to their doors every day of the week.
Try imagining what those downtown office buildings would be worth without Muni. The whole structure of downtown is based on Muni shoveling people through their doors. The 38-Geary alone is one of the largest transportation lines in the world. Take away Muni, and those skyscrapers are just big, empty monuments of concrete and glass.
Submitted on Mon, 06/27/2005 - 12:48am
In late March & late April of this year, an NLRB Administrative Law Judge heard testimony on the Nutraceutical / Fresh Organics dba The Real Food Co. case. A decision on the various unfair labor practices charges filed against Nutraceutical prior and subsequent to the abrupt closure of Real Foods/24th St. is expected imminently. Here are some details on the case culled from the hearing transcript. (Although not identified in this trannscript, the IWW is the union discussed herein)
By [email protected] - Sunday, Jun. 26, 2005
A SUMMARY OF THE RECENT NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ADMINISTRATIVE LAW HEARING CONCERNING CHARGES OF UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES FILED AGAINST FRESH ORGANICS, INC. DBA THE REAL FOOD COMPANY, A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF NUTRACEUTICAL CORP.
The source for this summary was primarily the transcript from the NLRB hearing. In certain instances, hearing exhibits were also relied upon to provide details. Following the hearing, fifteen or more citizens who'd attended sessions of the hearing met to compare notes and discuss salient aspects of the testimony. This meeting was helpful in terms of later culling material from the hearing transcript, creating a hearing outline, and arranging the material thematically.