Trimess

Friday, July 6, 2012

TRANSIT UNION WILL FIGHT MCFARLANES BID TO END ARBITRATION

This is Jon Hunts last report as president of ATU 757. It won't be the last we hear from him though, he is the new vice president with Bruce Hansen in the leadership role. I think that having Jon as vice president can be a good thing, he is up to date on all the issues and could be a valuable resource to Bruce. There is no reason to believe that there is any animosity between the two. It might be a good idea to keep Ron Heintzman on the payroll as a consultant, as Jon did when he was president.


The union has no intention of giving in to Mcfarlane in his right wing attempts to get rid of the arbitration. Jon agrees that Mcfarlanes gambit is based on the thinking that most members will not strike. (especially with so many newbies) My personal opinion based on 15 years as a Trimet bus driver is that Mcfarlane is right.

You can say many things about Mcfarlane, but one thing is obvious, he is not stupid. He knows exactly what he is doing and he has the complete support of the sock puppets and the governor. That should be obvious to Trimet watchers because if that wasn't true he would not be attempting it. And the man is a career technocrat, which means his morality compass is damaged.

I understand as much as anyone that the health care system is intent on breaking the backs of every American citizen.
Trimet, under the leadership of Tom Walsh and Fred Hansen, understood the hazardous nature of transit work and did the right thing for the employees by making decent health care part of the package. So passing the buck to former leaders is an act of cowardice on the part of our current leaders.

My personal feeling is that there needs to be some give back on this issue. But linked to something else, like higher wage for example.

But to make that the #1 issue with Trimet's financial problems is downright dishonest.
And you don't need to take my word for it, arch conservative JOHN CHARLES does an excellent job of articulating Trimet's problems.






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good article by Jon. I expect Jon Hunt and Bruce Hansen to be a formidable team.

The ATU membership should consider maturing; dial down the in-fighting and ask Bruce and Jon how and where they need Membership's support. Membership should ask for and receive open communication from their new ATU Leadership. When they receive it, they should be respectful and remain good stewards of that trust.

Anonymous said...

Time will tell if this "is" indeed a formidable team. The culture now "has" to change, no more secret society, whith Jon and "his" crew. Support Bruce, but hold him accountable when things go south against "everyones" wishes. As far as the artical goes, "don't expect anything from Trimet". Jon and his old crony Sam was putting out "expect a check", this "was" sheer non-sence, if you do get a check, nice, but don't expect it. Keep fighting the machine until (maybe) that happends. Don't settle for less.