Trimess

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Tyranny at Trimet-my fight for civil rights as a Trimet employee

Those that have been following this blog over the years know that I have been in a fight with Trimet management for my rights as a citizen of Oregon and the United States of America.

Trimet management asserts they have the right to regulate my off duty behavior, in my house, using completely legal apparatus, to listen to and re-publish over the air wave communications of transit operations.
They contend that I violate their internal rules which require me to seek 'permission' to record any employees voice or picture, on or off duty, over the public airwaves or at any public meeting.

These requirements are a violation of my civil rights, however if I don't comply I have been threatened with termination.

The actual regulations were promulgated in response to my on the job activities where occasionally someone would be recorded by accident and then got upset about it to management. The on the job regulations seemed to me more than reasonable and I make every effort to comply.

After the publishing of a over the air wave dispatch communication where a driver had had coke thrown in her face and became upset, Trimet management decided that these regulations also apply to my off the job behavior.

I contend the Trimet regulations are a violation of Oregon and Federal statues.

This will be my "step three" hearing at which there will be 2 union representatives and two company representatives.

It's basically more bullshit by our management because if there is a tie then the sanction is upheld.

The entire disciplinary process is dominated by Trimet management and we have seen over the years how management covers up for itself, there is no semblance of fairness or justice when dealing with Trimet management.

Fred Hansen (on right) progressive
It didn't used to be that way around here, under FRED HANSEN'S administration I never encountered any problems in this area.




NEIL MACFARLANE, who preaches "transparency" (as long as he controls the information)  has implemented all these draconian measures against TRIMET EMPLOYEES and has also shown complete disregard for the rights of TRIMET RIDERS with this recent unjust and unforgiving fare enforcement action.

Interesting that this is all happening after the latest widely publicized event of which I ended up playing a prominent role, completely unintentionally.

I had no idea that this story would go viral, I just thought to bring a little understanding into the what the driver was thinking during the incident.
Neil Macfarlane totalitarian

2 comments:

Erik H. said...

It boils down to that Neil McFarlane is, by training and experience, a project manager, and most recently a light rail project manager.

As such - his job is largely to squash any opposition and make the project work, because if it didn't - it was a failure on his part if the project didn't succeed.

He's bringing the same attitude to running all of TriMet, just as I predicted he would. He never once cared about the bus system, and he shows it. It's about his way, making it happen - and damned be anyone that gets in his way. Any negative news must be squelched. Why the focus on blaming drivers when it's a policy failure? Don't blame the white-shirt dispatcher for failing to send a Supervisor when asked, blame the driver!

Go in fighting, fight strong, don't give up. At some point this broken machine has to break down, and TriMet will have to realize it can't keep running the way it is. What will it take - a L.A. Bus Riders Union style federal lawsuit?

Anonymous said...

how can we maintain of project management scheduling...
Project Management Offices