On June 2, Ed Reiskin, director of transportation for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), issued the following statement regarding the operator shortage due to a “sickout.”
“I apologize to San Francisco residents and visitors for the severe disruption to today’s transit service. We appreciate the patience and perseverance of our customers. We are mobilizing all resources to keep as much service moving as we can.
Muni provides a valued and important service to San Francisco. The great majority of Muni operators work hard every day to serve the people of San Francisco. They do so well and should be fairly compensated. I appreciate all our employees, both in operations and maintenance, who came in overnight and this morning to keep our system running under very difficult circumstances. The service that they provided today and provide every day is absolutely essential to the economic vitality and quality of life in San Francisco for people who live, work, and visit here.
The management of the SFMTA has negotiated in good faith with the leadership of the Transport Workers Union, Local 250-A. I am disappointed that this sickout follows the mediated tentative agreement that we reached. We have a process in place to resolve the remaining issues through the arbitration process already underway. We will do everything possible to get our people back to work, and we strongly urge our partners in the union leadership to do the same.”
