Trimess

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Trimet union labor cost chart is completely bogus

As far as I can tell these numbers are  completely bogus  unless I'm missing something!


This chart is found on TRIMET'S WEB SITE
The very first thing that stands out is the 'base hours' A full time employee works a minimum of 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year. That computes to 2080 hours worked. 
How  they come up with 1848 hours is beyond my comprehension. 
At the rate of $49,452 divided by 2080 hours times five days gives us 
$190/day pay for the average bus operator.
This figures assume that all bus operators are at maximum rate of pay, which takes 3 years to achieve.
For the next calculations we will use $190/day as average rate of pay.

The next problem that appears wildly inflated is under the column titled "holiday pay".
Under the 'holiday pay' column Trimet states they are paying $3,104 per year of holiday pay for union employees. That comes out to 16 holidays a year at $190/day. I can't think of 16 holidays each year that I received as an employee there. Here's my list-3 floaters/1 birthday/Xmas/New Years/July 4/Labor Day/Thanksgiving.
That's nine holidays a year paid for by the company. That comes out to $1710/year not $3,104. Who knows where that figure comes from.

The next problem is under the column of 'vacation pay' . According to Trimet's figures everybody is getting 28 days of vacation every year.  $5352 divided by $190/day.  
I can tell you that after 25 years an employee can get 30 days of vacation a year. Very few employees have been at Trimet for 25 years or more.
 That number is blatantly false from what I can discern.

The biggest number that stands out as impossible is the 'total medical/dental insurance family' of $32,448. 
First of all about 1/2 the employees are single and the out of the other 1/2 half of those have actual families with children. So right there this number is false because Trimet claims that all employees have families with children. This also doesn't include the 1/2 of employees who have chosen Kaiser as there medial coverage which is substantially cheaper than Blue Cross.
My coverage for example is for my wife and myself and the last time I looked at the cost it was $1750 (of which I pay about $120) per month for the Blue Cross. 
ALSO fully 1/3 of Trimet operators are PART TIME and get no family coverage at all, yet this is not accounted for in their phony numbers.
According to TRIMET'S OWN NUMBERS there is no plan costing them $2700/mo.
Basically its a complete fabrication

Trimet's  entire argument is based on false numbers!
Unless I'm missing something! If I am missing something somebody please point it out!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

52 weeks minus 4 weeks (vacation - because it is reported separately) minus 9 days (72 hours holidays - also reported separately) = 1848 hours

Al M said...

AND-you have to be there 10 years to get 4 weeks vacation!

Jason McHuff said...

The table is for an operator with 15 years seniority, which would mean 5 weeks of vacation according to the contract. Adding 3 floating holidays plus their birthday equals the 232 hours off.

(This of course is not someone who is anywhere close to starting out.)

In addition, the first footnote says that it assumes the employee works all fixed holidays (but not the floating one) and earns overtime pay for doing so.

The Holiday Pay category must include both the 8 hours of straight time that's automatically earned plus the overtime earned for working on a holiday.

And wasn't $26.76 the wage at the time, which is what the calculations come out to?

Jason McHuff said...

Overall, someone who is single, chose Kaiser, doesn't work their holidays (just taking the automatic 8 hours) and doesn't have so much seniority would get a lot less compensation.

It's also interesting that, except for Eugene, no other agency provides longevity pay.

Al M said...

All the figures are basically bogus