Classic tweets

@APMargulies TriMet management is probably having a taxpayer/bus operations budget funded party to celebrate!

— punkrawker4783 (@punkrawker4783) July 14, 2012

@APMargulies yea I hope they know any respect left for them, if any as it is, is gone, they might want to tread lightly going forward

— punkrawker4783 (@punkrawker4783) July 14, 2012

Your baby been crying? Maybe you can get some $$$ out of Trimet

TriMet investigates yet another crying infant complaint - Koinlocal6.com

SO THE KING OF SLEEZE WINS

So Mcfarlane has succeed in shoving this contract down our throats.
The arbitrator had so many problems with the Trimet final offer he basically laid out a road map to use in order to sue Trimet.
But in the end he decided the interest of the public was more important than the interest of the employees. Blue Cross subscribers are the greatest affected. Obviously Trimet wants everybody on the much cheaper Kaiser. You have to go to their facility no matter how far away you are from one, and they assign you doctors. You have no choices. Most of their doctors are second class, from foreign countries or unable to have their own practices. You wait in line. They are trained to offer as little service as possible. That's how they make money. While I know people that do like them, I know more that hate them. (they almost killed my first wife)

And if you were hired after April 1, 2011 guess what? All employees hired on or after April 1 2011 HAVE NO DEFINED PENSION PLAN! You have the famous 401K which you have to contribute to and which is subject to the ups and downs of the stock market. (translation-you could lose the entire thing to the banks)

You also are not vested until you have worked here 20 years!
Basically your getting a decent wage and working for a shitty company that cares very little about its employees. It's basically another version of Mcdonald's but the pay is better.

TriMet wins arbitration battle against union

Portland Afoot
Joe Rose

Seen on Facebook

as Ronnie Dunn said: "They just took the shoes off of my children's feet. The food out of their mouths"
 I switched to Kaiser because I could no longer afford Blue Cross. I won't go to Kaiser, I refuse, they sent my brother home saying he had indigestion, he was having a heart attack. I don't trust them.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK ABOUT MANAGERS GLOATING OVER THIER 'WIN'

I haven't seen that sort of behavior. But I do find it suspicious to say the least that today was the day to have a "transportation managers retreat."
(these shit heads are having a retreat while we are losing our benefits)

MY COMMENTS ON THE UNION LOSS

This is some serious shit, especially since Trimet has 'retroactive' provisions in there.

I'm gone because I knew the shit was about to hit the fan and my personal despise for this agency was getting the best of me after they set up a phony complaint against me.  

But for the life of me I am surprised that most operators just don't care. Doesn't bother them in the least that their employer just took a big shit right on their heads.
But even if 20-30% of employees did honor a strike it would cause huge service disruptions.
Of course if we could get rail operators to strike we would win fast.

And I'm pissed at our union for giving away our right to strike.

At least we could have given this piece of shit management a run for their money and caused some pain.

Instead we lost by virtue of bureaucrats and the maze of rules.

It's pathetic 
It appears that the arbitrator ruled that our health benefits are out of line and he accepts Trimet's argument that if we don't get whacked the public will get whacked so he decided in the interest of the public, which is #1 on the list.

But the number of lies and distortions from Trimet in this document is astounding.
The arbitrator himself gives specific instruction on how to sue Trimet which is incredible.
I'm wondering if there was external pressure put on this man to rule for Trimet.

Trimet final offer "illegal"

ARBITRATOR SAYS 'TRIMET CAN BE SUED'

THE HELL WITH THE 'LAW' STRIKE NOW AFTER YOU READ THIS

TRIMET BLUE CROSS SUBSCRIBERS-YOU WILL NOW PAY 10% OF ALL YOUR BILLS-20% FOR MEDICATION

Say you have $100,000 bill you will be billed $10,000.

ARBITRATOR CALLS OUT YET ANOTHER LIE BY TRIMET

ARBITRATOR LEVELS SCATHING ATTACK AGAINST TRIMET MANAGEMENT

ARBITRATOR ACTUALLY CALLS OUT TRIMET LIES

MICHAEL OLIVER TURNS OUT TO BE A PROPHET

For all Mcfarlanes whining and moaning about 'arbitration favors the status quo' he turns out to be the winner in this game.

Many of us, myself included, have never liked the union presidents move to end our right to strike.

Now we see what  A terrific blunder it was.

TRIMET WINS THE ARBITRATION!-updated

McFarlane now achieves HERO STATUS-congratulations Mcfarlane but if you think your just gonna be EXALTED RULER NOW FORGET IT! RELEVANT PROVISIONS HERE. THE ARBITRATOR AGREES THAT THE HEALTH PROVIDED US IS TOO GENEROUS AND THAT IS BASICALLY WHY HE RULED FOR TRIMET-HE ALSO RULED THAT NOBODY WILL QUIT BECAUSE OF HIS RULING AND THERE WILL BE NO PROBLEM HIRING QUALIFIED PEOPLE FOR NEW POSITIONS.
There are many many unanswered questions here and I am sure there will be several lawsuits pending but MCFührer continues to succeed with his lies and distortions. He is a ruthless tyrant and deserves absolutely no respect from the employees or the riders

RULING IS HERE!

Readership-last 7 days

Portland Transport: Transit and those dependent upon it

 Excellent piece written by Scott Johnson

Transit workers fight back attempt to demonize them for fiscal problems

This past week, braving blazing 100 plus degree temperatures and universal condemnation from the local, corporate owned media, Columbus bus drivers and maintenance workers, members of United Transportation Union, local 208, carried out a successful two day strike against COTA (Central Ohio Transportation Authority).

The largely African-American UTU workforce had been working since November without a contract, and no progress had been made in negotiations until a Federal Mediator was brought in a month ago. However, members of UTU, concerned with safety and economic issues had set a deadline of July 1 to settle or to walk. The union did not want to strike but felt they had to take a stand for economic justice and public safety or, as public workers, they’d continue to be made scapegoats for an economic crisis caused by corporate greed. “Our members live in this community and whatever they earn, they spend in this community,” said TWU, local 208 President Andrew Jordan. “We are active contributing members of the Columbus community and we’re working to make this area better, stronger and safer.”

The settlement, after talks quickly got underway and were successful, brings workers a 7% raise over the next three years and, while continuing pension coverage, has workers contributing an additional 1% to that program.

Trimet ignoring me-again

I filed this complaint using their form and sending it to customer service. The complaint was about customer service. So far nothing. I intend to keep bugging them until I get an official answer. If the rules have changed since I worked there and it is now OPERATORS DISCRETION to provide rides along the dead head or to the end point of the dead head I WANT TO SEE THAT IN WRITING SO ALL OPERATORS ARE AWARE OF IT. Trimet wants to pay $25/hr to drive buses empty, some of them up to 1 hour and the rules permit that, then lets see it.

@trimet I made an official complaint on your form and submitted it per your instructions-I EXPECT AN ANSWER! …ntingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-file…
— AL M (@APMargulies) July 13, 2012

Max Faq's

And this, boys and girls, is why TriMet has slow orders through sun kink: myfoxdc.com/story/19009553…

— MAX FAQs (@maxfaqs) July 13, 2012

MORE TVM FAILURES ON VIDEO

TVM #135 at millikan way EB. The same one that was getting 'fixed' yesterday. You are a failure, #trimet. #trimesstwitvid.com/IUM4G

— Adri C (@PDXtrimetrider) July 13, 2012

Trimet fixes the beeping TVM

Well, at least the beeping is gone

TriMet youth pass is good policy to address Portland's toxic air

OregonLive.com

Tic Tac Toe on a dirty TriMet bus Window

This is a new low. Passengers are using the windows as a chalk board to play tic- tac-toe. At the end of today,another 5 Powell buses will have clean windows.
When will we have clean buses?

TriMets fare policy causes friction-Jeff Ackerson

Bus drivers are stuck between enforcing policy and drawing complaints from passengers

---

A year ago, most passengers who illegally rode TriMet for free got away with it.
But since last July, when the regional transit agency officials announced they were cracking down on fare evasion by hiring six new fare inspectors and cutting straight to citations for first-time offenders, the days of worry-free fare jumping are long gone.

Comments worth considering

Dear TriMet,
Fuck off; I'll speak on whatever item because that is my public right. I know that you fear the public opinion and your board members don't want to be late for lunch, but I'm sure there are a few riders who would like to spend some of their excessive ticket money on being able to HAVE lunch. Maybe they should board your two new MAX stations (certainly not told to the public before it happened) for they can get your attention, and you can use your fare inspectors to go throw the poor ones off so it's property values can be maintained and it looks fine to the upper class. Have fun being known as the despicable people who destroyed TriMet.
You sicken me.
 Cameron Johnson - PortlandAfoot