During my time as your financial secretary/treasurer, I have never written about the general manager of any property who’s member ship this union represents. It is my hope that this fact will lend some credence to the gravity of what I am about to write to you.
Trimet’s general manager, Neil McFarlane, is consciously and continually lying. He’s lying to the public, he’s lying to the media, and he is lying to this membership.
During a recent meeting, McFarlane, Beth de Hamel (Trimet’s CFO) Ron Heinzman, Jon Hunt, Sam Schwarz and 757 arbitration attorney, Mike Tedesco, I asked Neil McFarlane “if we had not filed the ULP and were still waiting on the original contract binding arbitration, would you be implementing this new insurance structure on our members?”
He responded “No I wouldn’t be”.
I followed up by stating, “based on the time-lines that (attorney) Mike just gave us our case wouldn’t have even been heard by an arbitrator before January and then the arbitrator would have the case for months.”
Mr. McFarlane did not disagree with this statement. In absolute contradiction to this verbal exchange, McFarlane wrote in an article posted on Trinet December 8 2010 “although I am disappointed with the unions unfair labor practice (ULP) is blocking the arbitration and preventing us from resolving the underlining issues of salary and benefits, we would have frozen wages and benefits…regardless of whether the ATU had filed the ULP.”
Really Mr. McFarlane? Because that is not what me and five other people heard in that room that day.
Neil McFarlane and Beth de Hamel will be a facing a judge and court reporter in 3rd party unfair labor practice proceedings in the coming months. Because of the statements that were made in that room during that meeting, McFarlane and De Hammel will have to either perjure themselves or admit that Trimet committed and unfair labor practice and that McFarlane made false statements in his recent articles and statements to the media and this membership.
Personally my respect for Beth de Hamel will ride solely on her testimony. She’s not out there writing BS like McFarlane but she will definitely have a decision to make when she gets in front of a judge and court reporter.
The sole reason I got involved with the union was because of my passionate stance against dishonesty and abuse of power.
Corporate dishonesty and abuse of power turns my stomach…and right now, Neil McFarlane turns my stomach! For me, this is personal, and you should be taking it the same way. He has essentially gone on record and printed a statement that conveniently avoids THE FACT that I asked that question and he responded the way he did. He has since gone on and glossed over that contradiction with lies, while conveniently implementing a new insurance policy that pulls YOUR PAYCHECKS.
How personal can things get?
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