Employees of the city's major streetcar line, the privately owned Market Street Railway, had walked out at 2:00 A.M. Sunday for their own demands rather than in sympathy with the general strike. Carmen on the Municipal Railway met, then without the formality of a vote, simply failed to show up for work. As city employees with civil service status and pensions, they faced a special problem. Edward Vandeleur, who headed the Muni carmen's local as well as the San Francisco Labor Council, had tried to keep the cars in the barns without strike action. Vandeleur had appealed to Utilities Manager Edward G. Cahill to withdraw service because of the intimidation and violence that threatened the men if they took out the cars. Cahill refused.

Instead, a special, early morning, two-hour meeting of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) (in the home of a sick member) instructed Cahill to resume operations immediately and to forfeit the civil service status and pensions of employees who failed to return to work. The General Strike Committee proposed the cars, on returning to service, carry a sign saying they were operated by the committee's permission. The PUC refused. The committee yielded, sending the Muni carmen back to work with its thanks "for their sympathy and assistance."' It was the first of the committee's efforts-expanding food supplies, providing gas, opening additional restaurants-to cushion the impact of the general walkout on the public (or, some militants said, to liquidate the general strike).