To Muni Metro operators

I want to support unions, I really do. But the San Francisco Municipal Railway's operators union makes it really hard. And the worst of the bunch are the Metro operators.

When you witness their slow, inattentive, and often ineffective "work" on the Metro -- the electric streetcar portions of the transit system -- and you reflect that the Metro is supposed to be where the "best" operators wind up, it's all but impossible to feel any sympathy for these men and women.

That's why their authorization of a strike is so galling. Yes, as the article notes, it's "a fairly common tactic in labor negotiations," but I can't think of municipal workers who are less respected as a group than Muni operators.

Of course I've encountered considerate, more than competent, eminently respectable Muni operators. Unfortunately, they're the exception, not the norm. And I understand that being on the front lines of customer service for a system whose failures are far more celebrated than its successes is a wearing, demoralizing position in which to find oneself. I therefore cut Muni drivers a lot of slack: I don't expect them to be chipper and I don't hold gruffness against them.

But the Metro operators spend a third of their runs isolated from passengers. While underground, their trains are run by computer. They don't have to take fares from passengers at any underground station. I've seen them read newspapers while the trains roll through the tunnels. They really have that little to do while going to and coming from downtown.

Yet these supposedly best operators can't be bothered to explain delays to passengers, or to check that the doors are clear before closing them.

With the lowest burden of passenger interaction, Muni Metro operators as a group still manage to do it worst. That's contemptible.

(This rant was prompted by Akit's letter to the Muni operators union, with which I agree for the most part, but which reflection made me narrow down to Metro operators.)