That is what new General Manager Terry Hird said last week to office workers last week, prompting the resignation of bike dispatcher Greg Rodich and the third DMS messenger strike in a year. Today, January 12 2000, all San Francisco DMS bike messengers, walkers, in-town drivers, and some out of town drivers walked off the job to protest poor working conditions, voodoo payouts and a lack of respect by management.
The strike will continue this week, and DMS corporate bigwigs are flying to San Francisco to negotiate a truce with pissed off employees. Throughout the day radios were jammed and dispatchers pleaded with the remaining out of town drivers for help with in town tags, while messengers contacted customers to apologize for the service slowdown.
KCBS, KGO and KPFA radio covered the strike, and the picket line outside of 1900 Third St prompted many passing trucks and cars to blow their horns in support. Later at the Wall, the popular messenger standby spot, messengers from other companies joined striking workers by refusing to run tags from DMS customers.
It was DMS workers that staged the first messenger strike in years last March, protesting the firing of an activist team leader. It was also DMS workers that rallied on April 15 last year to protest unfair labor practices. Lets hope that this DMS strike will pave the way for a Union election and a working contract for messengers that are tired of empty promises.
