By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board
For our January meeting, HANC has invited a panel of speakers to address possibilities for increasing Muni revenue to address its upcoming budget shortfalls. Our invited guests include Janet Tarlov (SFMTA Board), Ed Mason and Robert Feinbaum (Save Muni), outgoing California Assemblymember Phil Ting, and Chris Arvin and Kat Seigel (Proposition L proponents).
After SFMTA passed its budget this past spring, it learned that it would be receiving less money from the city and the state than it had anticipated. The agency is facing a $15 million budget deficit in fiscal year 2025-2026 and a $240 to $320 budget deficit in fiscal year 2026-2027, when federal pandemic relief funds run out, and when state and regional relief is cut. Equivalent deficits are projected for future years.
Among the strategies considered to address these deficits are service cuts. Some of the service cuts being considered include:
- Suspend lower utilized Muni routes
- Reduce frequencies up to 50%
- Suspend historic train and cable car service
- Operate late-night OWL service only (no regular Muni service) from 9 p.m. – 6 a.m.
- Eliminate or reduce Muni fare subsidies for our most transit-dependent community members: seniors, people with disabilities, people with very low incomes and youth
- Eliminate or reduce tow program subsidies for people who are homeless or very low income
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By Christin Evans, HANC Board
In the aftermath of the 2024 election, union activity went into high gear with key unions grabbing headlines with very visible picket lines during the holiday season.
In San Francisco and at approximately 200 facilities across the nation, the Teamsters organized their largest strike against Amazon to date. Timed to coincide with the busy holiday shopping season, the coordinated strike impacted a local distribution hub in the Bayview. In a TikTok video, a worker participating in the strike says into the camera “Amazon is refusing to come to the negotiating table so we are currently striking to demonstrate that we hold the power.” In a second video posted to the amazonteamsters tik tok the San Francisco distribution center workers list their demands, “We are demanding a living wage. We are demanding that Amazon pay for 100% for health benefits for full time and part time workers and we are demanding a pension and a safe workplace. We come to work every day breaking our backs and what do we get for it? We are all here just scraping by. We think it's time to say enough is enough and we deserve more.” The nationwide strike lasted only 7 days and ended on December 26 but the Teamsters press release gave notice that future actions are planned.
Across town, the hotel workers union UNITE 2 including housekeepers, bellhops, cooks, dishwashers, and servers swelled to over 2500 protesters at its peak across three major hotel chains: Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt. Just before Christmas the management of the San Francisco hotels came to the table and the unions declared victory with concessions for higher wages and pension benefits as well as the retention of their health insurance plan which extends benefits to workers and their family members. A few news outlets including the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the incoming Mayor Daniel Lurie had been helpful in breaking the log jam by making a few calls to the owners of the Marriott hotels. In this article about the strike, 48 Hills’ Tim Redmond quoted Anand Singh, chief negotiator for Local 2: “It wasn’t the deciding factor. But (Lurie) was able to reach the right people, and get them to the table.” (https://48hills.org/2024/12/hotel-strike-was-a-huge-victory-for-local-labor-and-a-victory-of-sorts-for-the-new-mayor/)
