Michael Kahn
Reuters, May 27, 1999.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 28 (Reuters) - They are the downtown daredevils, free-wheeling free-thinkers who whip, wander and weave through traffic- clogged streets gunning to make their next delivery.

Sporting wild hairstyles, tattoos and a hell-for-leather attitude, San Francisco's bike messengers are a vibrant part of the urban landscape, a tribe of athletic nonconformists who keep the wheels of commerce spinning.

But nonconformity becomes a little harder with age, and in San Francisco as in many U.S. cities some messengers have now been on the job for more than a decade. While their spirits are as free as ever, their rents are going up and their knees are giving out. So who will care for the ageing bike messengers?

For some the answer is clear: the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, founded by labour militant Harry Bridges, which once staged strikes that tied up shipping for weeks on the West Coast.

``The whole industry needs a good working-over from the bottom up, '' said Paul Kazemi, a messenger who has been riding for eight years. ``That's what we are trying to do.''

On June 1, messengers at one local San Francisco firm, Ultra Express, will become the first in the country to vote on whether to unionize, a step they say is needed to earn a fair shake and a decent wage from their employers.

``My job is a lot more high-risk than someone sitting in an office answering phones,'' Kazemi, 33, told Reuters. ``It's not like the money isn't there.''

Bike messengers say they gravitate to their jobs for a variety of reasons. Some do it for the exercise or the chance join a fun community, while others are simply hoping to avoid working in an office trapped behind four walls and a desk.

BIKERS SAY THEY NEED HELP

Nevertheless, many messengers feel they deserve the same kind of benefits others in the workplace already enjoy. With riders often working 9-to-10-hour days with no paid breaks, overtime or health benefits, they argue, changes are needed in the often dangerous profession.

The union drive has sparked similar efforts in Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles, where messengers face many of the same working conditions, Jerry Martin, an organiser with the San Francisco local of the ILWU, said.

``I would imagine messengers have similar complaints and face similar conditions across the country,'' he said, adding that they had also received letters of support from New York, Chicago and Toronto.

In San Francisco, about 2,000 people work in the messenger industry, including 300 bike riders as well as drivers, dispatchers, mechanics and walking messengers, Martin said. While the union hopes to organise the entire industry, the bike riders are leading the charge, he said.

``They are the most active in organising at this point. The bikes are kind of the spearhead for the effort.''

If successful, the unionization drive looks likely to raise the cost of bike messenger delivery, an important lifeline for law firms, medical offices and a host of other businesses operating in downtown San Francisco.

``The whole thing is predicated on raising the price of these tags (deliveries),'' Martin said. ``They've been making their money on the backs of these messengers.''

BIKERS FOR BENEFITS OR COLD HARD CASH?

But Tom Finlay, a spokesman at one of the first three delivery firms targeted for unionization, said many of the messengers want to maximize their take-home cash, not get bogged down in a complicated corporate benefits plan that assumes they'll be riding for life.

At Dispatch Management Services Corp., one of the city's biggest messenger firms with about 50 riders, an average pretax payout is $65 per day, and the highest earners make $160-170 per day, Finlay said.

While the New York-based company offers workers 50 percent subsidised health insurance and an opportunity to set up 401K pension plans, it has found that many messengers would rather get the money upfront and skip the benefits plans.

``Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they shouldn't have access to company pension funds and those sorts of things,'' Finlay said. ``It' s just that the average person who comes and works on the job, they' re young, under 30, and stay in the job one to two years.''

But at a recent rally and barbecue outside the offices of a local firm, many of the 50 or so messengers attending said even benefit plans like the one at DMS are too expensive for them.

ILWU organisers brought the food and worked the grill as riders pulled in and lined up for kebabs and potato salad. Most piled their bikes against nearby buildings and stuck around long enough to talk about why they need a union.

They agreed there is a high turnover rate among riders but point out many do stay in for the long haul. ``There is a veteran core if you will,'' said Howard Williams, president of the San Francisco Bike Messenger Association.

``If we get organised we can put enough pressure on the industry. Income for messengers has stagnated and we want to do something,'' said Williams, 46, a 15-year veteran rider.

While some might scoff at the idea of the rough-and-tumble messengers getting their act together to form a union, believers like Williams say it is the only way.

They also say there is a precedent in California labour history: the unionization of San Francisco's hard-living longshoremen in the 1930s, which eventually led to union control of harbours up and down the West Coast. ``We believe it is a militant union with much history behind it,'' Martin said.