I wonder if non union wages are frozen too. ?
TriMet has stated there will be no back pay once the contract is ratified. Meanwhile Mr. Steadman who was hired to be be the Director of Labor Relations, I'm assuming this is his only responsibility, doesn't have time to meet with the union until September. Too busy sitting around collecting money for writing propaganda, I guess. They want to postpone negotiations as long a possible so they can deny union employes a raise for what could be up to 3 years. A tactic intended to drive down wages no doubt.
Mr Steadman said that TriMet will put the saving from the ERB decision into more service, but he doesn't say where. The budget is written and approved. A mere 1.3 million was added to improve bus service. By TriMet's own admission these are minor improvements. I'm guessing what he means is that more money will now be available for planning the next rail project, not for bus service.
What is actually going on at TriMet is a battle between bus service and the well paid people who build light rail. Keep drivers and expand bus service or keep engineers and planners and build light rail. Guess who always wins that argument.
Also has anyone commented on the fact that non union employees receive $1500 per person in dental benefits and union employes only $1000?
Has anyone done any research into non union perks?
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Well it appears that Mr. Rose nearly reported a fair story, but I wonder if his political leanings have tarnished his ability to write a balanced account of the situation.
Having read many of the responses, I'd say there is some "union busting" going on already in the public. Why we should abandon our union leadership? Because of somebody who thinks we're spoiled and has no earthly idea of what it takes to safely perform this vital function?
We transport a majority of Portland's work force to and from their jobs daily. We transport people who are too impaired to drive themselves, therefore saving countless lives and preventing traffic collisions. We subject ourselves to violent attacks on our persons, simply by doing our duty. Transit Operators face MANY more chances of getting sick or injured than MOST (excluding cops, firefighters, and other frontline service workers) occupations, and this silly notion that we have a "Cadillac" health plan is an insult to anybody who has been in the seat of a 20-ton, 30- or 40-foot-long vehicle. It is much more stressful to the body than driving your luxurious SUV straddling two lanes of traffic while you talk to your girlfriend on the phone, blithely ignoring many traffic laws and putting the 30-70 people on my bus at risk. I'm busy watching you drive, trying to predict what you will do next and how best to protect my passengers from your years of bad driving habits.
In the 'desperate-not-to-lose-readership' press these days, we often see articles portraying mostly the negative side of a profession which provides millions of safe miles of driving nationwide every single day of the year. How often do we see articles on 'The Day in the Life' of a driver? Where are the articles on the good things we do for the public on an hourly basis?
We balance unreasonable operating procedures from upper management with the needs of a widely-varied public body. Transit drivers require a mind that is quick to decide issues that could ultimately affect each life on their bus. We make constant decisions regarding safety on the road, and the stress we encounter affords us the right to the public shouldering a healthier portion of our health care costs than that which the average Joe Passenger pays. I feel not one ounce of guilt that my health care costs are less now than in my previous professions, because my current profession has a directly negative affect on my long-term health. Of course, my health is balanced by the choices I make, and I am committed to eating right and exercising as my schedule allows.
As current, pampered, TriMet management tries to bust our Union, I must argue that the union works hard, and will continue to fight for the best possible contract it can win for us. We pay them to do this, we rely on their negotiating skills to force TriMet to pay its frontline workers top dollar. Why we would abandom them and put ourselves at the mercy of a transit board stretches the bounds of logic.
Have any of you here who are anti-ATU 757, ridden a bus, Max, trolley or tram lately? I would venture to wager this experience was a positive one. If you haven't exercised your option to use public transportation, then your credibility in this discussion is severely diminished.
Those of you who have used Portland's public transit, do you remember the last positive article in The Oregonian about TriMet operators? Do you agree this publication seems to be heavily weighted toward the management side rather than taking the traditionally-neutral view morally expected from our journalists and their editors?
There is a lot of room for intelligent conversation on both sides here. Unfortunately, one side has an unfair advantage and is relying on dirty tricks and propaganda to sway public opinion in their direction. It appears to me, from all I've read, that ATU 757 is the 'good guy' here, and I am thankful they are negotiating on our behalf.
Without unions, the working man is lost. Those of you who doubt this tend to forget who brought us weekends, holidays, overtime pay and countless other rights you take advantage of on a daily basis. Big money interests have been intent on destroying unions and portraying us as 'thugs' for several decades. What positive results would come of this? Plenty for the powers that be, nothing but a return to the horrific conditions facing workers at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. While no union is perfect, they are obviously more concerned for workers rights and conditions than those they negotiate with.
So if you side with TriMet, that is your right. But do it from a position of knowledge and intelligence. If you cannot, please stay out of the discussion because you're part of the problem, not the solution.
The biggest concern I have with this thread is the lack of compassion people have for others. Why are people so willing to throw others into the cold because they are jealous of what they have earned after years of good faith bargaining. We are after all talking about people who have worked for years at thankless and difficult jobs precisely because of the wages, benefits and retirement offered. Because of this we have a well trained and experienced workforce that provide an above average transit service to our community. Do we really believe that we would have equal services if we "re-boot" TriMet and offer people WalMart wages and benefits to do these jobs?
"Oregon's labor board has upheld a TriMet contract requiring union drivers, mechanics and support staff to pay more of their health care costs. "
Why isn't there an 'Oregon management board' that would have A) fired TriMet upper management years ago, and B) reduced their compensation to the same as that of the drivers?
That there is not such board tells us that the management of such agencies is comprised of political cronies who are unaccountable. It also tells us that government is organized to thwart the interests of workers not management. Even in The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith pointed out the natural advantages of owners / management over workers. If anything the minimal claims of justice demand that the interests of workers be balanced by government not further disadvantaged.
The Oregonian: The best news money can buy.
OregonLive: The best of censored comments.
Signs of a sinking ship.
The Oregonian and it business partners wrap themselves in the flag and claim to have the First Amendment protection of "Freedom of the Press." Well, that's fine up to the point where they actively CENSOR the individual's First Amendment right to "Freedom of Speech."
Contrary to the above comments, Joe Rose and his corporate media cronies, while saying one thing, but then doing the other represent the worst kind of hypocrisy. Those of you who defend this behavior are renouncing your own rights and responsibilities as citizens.
nutmeg31, with due respect, I don't dispute most of your facts, but many don't apply to the ongoing labor relations with TriMet. For example:
Our former benefits were great, no argument. We'd be happy to pay the additional tax to keep the great benefits. In fact, we have historically negotiated away our demand for contractual increases in wages in order to keep our awesome benefits. We compromised. Instead of asking for $2 or $3 dollars more per hour in successive contracts, we agreed to calculated Cost Of Living Allowances that only amount to a fraction of a dollar per hour each year, JUST SO WE COULD KEEP THE CADILLAC MEDICAL WE NEED DUE TO THE NATURE OF OUR WORKING CONDITIONS AND THE DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS THEY HAVE ON OUR HEALTH. Don't hate us for that, bargain yourselves up to equal the awesome benefits we used to enjoy. We'll help you do it, too!
Now, by force of Arbitration Law, we have all been dragged down to a more common standard of benefits. While that's okay, we transit workers statistically have more illness than in other industries. We understand that going in, and that's why we depend on our collective bargaining power to acquire for us a higher standard of Health Care. Don't blame us for trying to take better care of ourselves, or blame us for the increasing cost of Health insurance.
Your comparison of Retiree Benefits is in error, as our contractual benefits are nothing near "universal", are contingent on Medicare, and only modestly supplement the traditional Social Safety nets we have all come to expect.
Obviously, there are many people less fortunate than ourselves, and there always will be. But our objective is not to drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator, rather it is to lead more and more people to organize and collectively bargain for higher and higher standards of socioeconomic parity.
Don't hate! Don't be jealous and try to tear us down. Take our hand and let us all lift you up.
What I still find interesting is the fact that TM still offers only the same two choices for insurance to all it's employees, active and retired. There is Kaiser ,( Doesn't work for everyone) and then there is the Cadillac, platinum, 1% er evil union member-retiree choice of BCBS. No other choices! Can't TM in all their wisdom and extensive contract negotiation skills find another health care provider in the Tri County area for the employees to choose from that is cheaper than BCBS? I don't think they want to. They want to use this issue at any cost to the taxpayer/rider as a wedge to break the union and make it's members look like THEY are the ones that make the poor decisions that has ruined a once fine agency.
You forgot to say that retirees are only on BCBS. Until they go on Medicare then Tri-Met only pays for a substandared medicare supplement plan. Another Lie by Joe Rose " Cadillac Health care for life " MY A%#
Not only do they censor but keep me from logging on. I have to create a new name to be able to comment. This has now happened three times. Joe Rose is the Tokyo Rose of Portland. He spew lies for Tri Met and puts us all in harms way. Shame on you Tokyo Rose.
"However, TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane has warned that the agency will be forced to cut bus service 70 percent by 2025 if the union doesn't continue to agree to "relatively small" concessions in health-care benefits. "
Am I mistaken, but isn't his building more light-rail the biggest amount of debt Tri-Met has made in the past few years. The increased expansion is next going to come to Tigard by the plans they have laid out. Who is paying for that? Where did Tri-Met plan on getting this money? Are they just going to blame the union and the workers again when they don't have enough? Is MacFarlane going to give himself and the other upper management another raise again, then claim they are broke and have to cut wages and benefits this time. Stay tuned for our next exciting episode of "As the stomach turns".
"Union health care benefits remain a platinum-level plan under the Affordable Care Act" said Stedmen. What does this mean, exactly? What does the ACA have to do with employees who receive coverage thru an employer?
Whether the public or private sector, health care continues to be an issue of voracious proportions in contract negotiations. As others have noted, many employers now only cover the fraction of health care costs; and somehow this justifies the notion that bus drivers (one of whom just left the hospital after being stabbed) deserve to join this downward spiral.
Fine. Let's just make the ACA universal and do away with employer provided health care. By universal, I mean everyone buying insurance from the same state supervised exchange of private insurance companies - and by everyone that means the executives, politicians, rank and file, public employees... everyone.
And let's make as much non-private health care information public and online as possible. How much do various hospitals charge for the same procedure? Which generics are being kept off the market by paying off manufacturers?
Meanwhile, those who somehow think TriMet drivers are making out like bandits don't know the first thing about legalized white collar crime.
I guess he can stop telling everyone about our "Overly generous benefits" we have had to pay for since 2009. And the deductibles we had to pay, and the 10% after the deductible has been met we also have had to pay. WAIT... Stop the presses. I guess we didn't have those overly generous benefits Mr Rose claimed we had since 2009. Stop lying for Tri-Met to help eliminate the union. We risk our lives everyday for people like you, what do you do sitting in that closed office staring out the window thinking of more ways to twist a story without telling both sides evenly
State board upholds TriMet contract requiring union members to pay more of their health care costs | OregonLive.com
1 comment:
"Has anyone done any research into non union perks?" @Jeb, this "is" the million dollar question, especially if you have over 70 non-union employees that make $100,000 or more, but that doesn't included benefits. Out of those 70+ what is there benefits packages,100% or 90/10 or the advertised 85/15? Plus, what impact does this have on the op costs, like they say the union contract has(since, saleries are part of the op cost)?? Maybe the Audit will uncover this and make it public? This "is" the story that Joe Rose "will not" touch, he is only concerned about op using cell phones, LOL what a joke hack!
The real story is why do they own $900 million dollars towards union retirement benefits, and why are they trying so hard to get out of it. This is why they have been spinning everything on the union since the $175,000 dollar man came into the picture, "it's the union's fault" is their talking point, we have to do cut backs (when we don't have to),and blam the union. We claim that we have a shortfall (when we don't)and blaim it on the union (while we take 3% raises at the same time). Contracting the system and expanding at the same time while claiming "broke",its all the union contract, no its business as usual. Remember, they have a full "spin" department, that works 247 on "all" things led by that $175,000 guy.
"You can fool some of the people sometime, but not all of the people all of the time."
HB
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