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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.