San Francisco: MUNI Considers Laying Off 22% of Its Drivers, Engineers & Maintenance Staff

[marmar]

(SFist) The San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority is potentially looking at laying off 1,000 to 1,200 of its staff in the next fiscal year, which would mean many Muni drivers and maintenance workers losing their jobs starting next summer.

Despite federal stimulus funds and cost-cutting measures over the last year, the lack of daily ridership and ongoing fixes to the Muni Metro system mean that the agency will face a $68 million budget deficit this fiscal year, and a $168 million deficit in the next fiscal year beginning July 2021. As the Examiner reports, that leaves the agency in the position to begin anticipating necessary layoffs of personnel to close the budget gap — particularly with no clear idea when ridership will return to the Muni system.

Calling the situation "far worse" than was even anticipated in the spring, SFMTA chief Jeffrey Tumlin pointed to the lack of a second stimulus package or any federal bailouts for transit as being partly to blame. And he said in a statement to the Examiner that it's especially terrible that the first people to lose their jobs will be the ones who have been front-line workers through the pandemic, and most at risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus.

"It tears me apart to think that now those people are at risk of losing their jobs, and to lose your job in San Francisco in this economy means jeopardizing your ability to pay rent or your mortgage," Tumlin said. "This is unconscionable. That this is even possible in a country like the United States of America baffles me." ............(more)

https://sfist.com/2020/12/01/sfmta-considering-laying-off-one-fifth-of-its-drivers-engineers-and-maintenance-staff/