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Day 2 Of Muni 'Sickout' Causing Hour Long Delays

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency employees called in sick for the second day in a row Tuesday morning, prompting hour long delays across the Muni system.

Only half of 600 Muni vehicles were operating Tuesday morning, according to agency spokesman Paul Rose.

The agency added an additional 100 vehicles to the system but notified commuters to expect service disruptions.

All express and limited buses will be stopping at every stop unless the bus reaches full capacity, and cable cars will be supplemented with limited shuttle buses, Muni officials said.

BART will also honor all Muni fares between the Daly City and Embarcadero stations.

SFMTA is advising customers to find alternative means of transportation and visit SFMTA's website to find out which rail lines and bus routes will not operate Tuesday. For real-time updates, customers can also follow Muni on Twitter.

San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener said he plans to introduce a resolution at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting urging San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency drivers to end their "sickout" and return to work.

Hour Long Muni Delays As Worker 'Sickout' Continues For Second Day

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On Monday Muni ran on a third of its normal capacity due to workers calling in sick. Many commuters experienced longer wait times and struggled to make their way around San Francisco on Monday.

Rose said if they want to use one of their 13 sick days allowed per year for Tuesday, they're going to need a doctor's note.

"This sick-out undermines public confidence in the agency," Wiener said in a statement.

"Muni drivers have a tough job, and they deserve good pay and benefits as well as respect for their service to our city," he said. "Similarly, Muni riders deserve to have a functional system to get to work, school, doctor's appointments, the grocery store and elsewhere."

Muni operators voted Friday on a proposed labor agreement. Officials with the employee union Transport Workers Union Local 250-A made no recommendation on the contract proposal, but it's clear they're unsatisfied with SFMTA's offer.

Its 2,200 operators represented by Transport Workers Union Local 250-A rejected the contract by a 1,198 to 42 vote Friday, according to totals on the union's website.

Under the proposal, Muni operator's pay would be raised to about $32 an hour on July 1–making them the second-highest paid transit workers in the country, according to the SFMTA. The outcome of the vote was not immediately being released, but TWU Local 250-A president Eric Williams said on the union's website that it was an "unfair contract" and that the "city devalued our service as they proposed unreasonable take aways."

KCBS, KPIX 5 and SF Chronicle Insider Phil Matier said that because they while operators aren't allowed to strike, Muni can't replace the drivers either.

"This isn't an organized effort; it's unofficial but they're not happy about it and the Muni drivers, from past history, are pretty efficient about this," he said. "When they want to go out sick and they wan to let their feeling be known; they are not shy about," he said.

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