Trimess

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

TriMet may be rolling toward disaster, but there's debate about what's driving the problems

 But far more than a lavish union contract would likely be at fault, they said. Rather, according to Pickrell and other experts who spoke to The Oregonian, TriMet has boxed itself into a situation where it has taken on grander projects to add more transit miles, even as it talks publicly about seemingly uncontrollable labor and operating costs. The agency also must explore new revenue sources, they said.

OregonLive.com

My comments:


“Once regarded as the gold standard of public transit in the United States, TriMet is at risk of becoming a "skeletal system" if labor costs aren't reduced, McFarlane warned.”
~~~> I’m not sure how this myth got started But I grew up in Boston and when I came to PDX I never saw TRIMET as being that big of a deal compared to the cities like Boston and New York
“”But far more than a lavish union contract would likely be at fault, they said. Rather, according to Pickrell and other experts who spoke to The Oregonian, TriMet has boxed itself into a situation where it has taken on grander projects to add more transit miles, even as it talks publicly about seemingly uncontrollable labor and operating costs. The agency also must explore new revenue sources, they said.””
~~~>and this is what we have been saying for years, they took every grant for expansion which was offered with no regard to the future.
“”Still, TriMet's union workers have some of the most generous health-care benefits in the U.S. transit industry.””
~~~>This is just not true anymore since the last arbitration loss and now we pay for the entire increase for this years coverage. A complete misrepresentation of the facts
“”Under the just-expired contract green-lighted by the arbitrator last summer, premiums for the average union worker cost TriMet $30,000 or more a year, while union employees pay 10 percent out-of-pocket costs up to $1,500 with no premiums through retirement.””
~~~>Again completely false.  ½ the employees have no dependents and ½ have Kaiser, its just not true at all. “”

“Although the arbitrator's decision was supposed to be binding, the ATU has appealed it, hoping to restore near-universal health care that had existed for nearly 20 years before the ruling. The union contends management broke labor laws while negotiating the last contract. te misrepresentation””
~~>which indeed they did do. Multiple rulings by the ELRB on this topic have been against Trimet
“””"In my view," he said, "this is really an S.O.S. to our community – save our service."””
~~~>Another stupid slogan by the Trimet ministry of propaganda
And once again I post the words of john Charles”
 

3 comments:

punkrawker4783 said...

According to my paycheck, my bennies were worth $15,400 last year.

Supposedly the new Obama thingy says they must disclose this cost on paychecks now, does any TriMet FT employee have this $30,000 number on their last paycheck of 2012?

Al M said...

Oh really-its supposed to be on the paycheck?
I gotta look into that but of course they don't!

Unknown said...

Punk is right, yet no one talks about their sides', Total Compansation, which addes to the operating costs, meaning the more 100,000 positions they are adding should get figured into the converstation.
HB