Trimess

Sunday, July 6, 2014

A Trimet driver writes -management abuses

Hay Al why not set up an anonymous complaint section on station managers and road supervisors. They seem to be exempt from complaints. As an operator we have no safe haven recourse to complain with out the fear of retaliation. Examples:


1. Manager busy texting while operator was talking to them. Manager never looked up the whole time while operator was talking. Shouldn't personal cell phone use by managers be off limits while they are on their salaried duty time?

2. Manager was seen outside, in the shade, dressed very casually on a very hot day with their laptop computer complaining that it was to hot and to it was to stuffy in the building to work. Shouldn't managers be held to the same standard and have to endure the same crappy working conditions provided to them as operators have to endure long hours in hot stuffy busses wearing a restrictive uniform.

3. Manager told operator that via the contract the operator has to be able to drive every bus regardless if the seat hurts your back and even if a doctor has said in a written statement the seat is damaging your back and you should not be in those busses .Why then should managers have luxurious chairs in their office. Managers should have regular chairs that do not adjust or conform to their height and weight.

4. Same manager seen constantly loafing off, walking around in the yard and parking lot without apparently nothing better to do. Appeared as if they were avoiding operators and work. Not constructive use of a salaried employees time and appears to be stealing time from the company when they should be dealing with operators bus, routes, schedules etc. issues.

5. Road supervisor seen at Clackamas Town Center asleep in his truck two different times. Road supervisors are few and far between and should be alert for operators. Operators would be highly scrutinized for doing this with possibility of losing ones job.

6. Road supervisors have been seen downtown texting and talking on cell while sitting in the drivers seat on the mall. Some have been seen reading the paper. Others have been seen at North Terminal watching sports on tv. Others have been seen wearing tennis shoes and being out of uniform. Some have been seen running red lights multiple times in official tri met vehicles.

7. Managers closes office door. Shouldn't all office doors be open at all times for operators be able to talk to all managers.
This is expected on all busses and should be expected of all managers.

8. Music and food at some garages seem to reflect only their personal demographic avoiding all demographics. Should not all music and food be a celebration of all demograhics. This seems to be a civil rights issue and it reflects that when all you hear is kool and the gang and popeyes chicken being offered neglecting others personal preference to food and music. It lacks the latinos music and food and other such as vegans, etc, etc. Also when little white powdered donuts wrapped in celophane tied with a purple ribbon is demeaning to a piticular race of people. How about food and music that celebrates all walks of life.

10 One manager who just finished talking to an operator after the operator left the office another operator walked into the managers office. That operator was then heard to say what was that all about and the manager was heard to say I don't know just a bunch of nothing. Making the operator who just left feel violated. Should not the same standard that operators have be forced on to managers. Operaors are not allowed to talk about passengers then managers should not be talking about operators to other operators. This also is another civil rights issue because there was differences in race and sex.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

PORK!

Anonymous said...

Wow what good points you make! Great idea to have a way to address their flaws and tri met promotes this kind of dysfunctional staff.

Anonymous said...

WOW is right! This is so wrong on so many levels. Station Agents and Supervisors are our Union Brothers and sisters. We don't write each other up, that is if you're cognizant of SOLIDARITY.

What other folks do isn't any of our business. If it's wrong they'll end up hanging themselves but to furnish a place to expose them publicly, anonymously is insane and fodder for the anti union management and press!

Who among us doesn't live in a glass house. Who ever took the time to compile the list is straight out a gossip.

Management is another game. You wanna expose them you damn well better have proof. Pictures, documents or your gonna get your ass sued and thrown under the bus.

Al, I've asked before, you didn't answer. If you want this blog to to come off as a serious investigative journalistic endeavor you need to do a survey of your followres. Age, education, socio/economic levels etc.

Anonymous said...

The original complaint is about managers not drivers. Looks like we have a troll who wants to distrort things as usual. But if operators are going to get anonymous complaints than "MANAGERS" who execute those distorted SIPs need to be watched for violations thats all. Management does read this blog and they don't like the real truth about what really goes on in the public view.

Feeling a little paranoid management because you have so many eyes watching you and reporting your discripencies publicly.

If anyone should be sued is Tri Met for slandering union brothers and sisters because of their distorted lies creating a hostile working environment.

I for one would love to have a variety of all ethicnic culture, music and food and I agree with the original author that some civil rights may be broken because other cultures are not being represented by station managers. Again for the troll we are talking about "station managers' and "road supervisors" not drivers.

Al M said...

This blog is a hobby which is an accumulation of Trimet related material that I have collected over the years, when I was working at Trimet and now that I have left Trimet.

As far as an 'investigative journal' I don't do much 'investigating' anymore, that takes time and money. I put enough time into accumulating the material and don't have much interest in spending my money on any of this. That's what the union is supposed to be doing.

Anonymous said...

So troll do you think it was right for you to violate Jay Frys right to freedom of expression on his Facebook page and suspend him for two days?

Anonymous said...

Al is right, the union should be investigating. I would bet the Reed Group info in a recent posting didn't come from the union. It should have and I would be surprised if it did. The president does not have time for relevant investigating.

Anonymous said...

I'm wasn't intentionally trying to be "trollish." And to be fair, I shouldn't be commenting as I am not nor have ever been a TriMet employee. However, much of the same things occur at other similar agencies and the one I worked at was much larger than Trimet. But we as driver's had (and have) the same concerns about being in a hostile work environment.

Okay, fair enough, I didn't understand what exactly was being described. I didn't know that management and not the drivers were playing ethnic music and distributing Popeye's chicken in the building. Yes, that's not right for management to force any type of ethnic culture on the entire workplace. I thought it was a bunch of drivers playing Kool and the Gang music and eating chicken. My mistake. Yes, I would say that's a civil rights violation for TriMet to be spending money on chicken and forcing the entire workforce to listen to Kool and the Gang.

Maybe I just am not understanding what goes on in the workplace anymore. I've been retired for more than eight years ...and I definitely do not understand what goes on at TriMet never having worked there. I only know that they turned me down for employment back in 1974 because they didn't think I had the "personality" to drive a bus. I was subsequently hired by a larger agency and worked there for over 30-years as a transit operator.

I apologize for being a troll.

Al M said...

Correct. The Reed group posting came from another individual activist not the union

Al M said...

I haven't seen the name 'jay frye' on this blog except that comment

Anonymous said...

The original complaint includes white shirts. Read it again.

Anonymous said...

So white shirts ARE the ones playing Cool and the Gang and offering Popeye's chicken to employees on the TriMet premises? That is interesting and definitely not right on several levels.

...I still listen to "Joanna" and wish I had married my Joanna. Kool and the Gang music crosses several demographic groups. However, yes, if management is forcing employees to listen to it, no matter what "demographic" group the manager or the employees of the work group may be or fit into, it is a violation of some type. Managers should never force employees to listen to any genre of music. I still don't believe that it is as egregious as some other violations of civil rights we've experience in this country, however.

Management offering their employees Popeye's chicken, however, is not a violation of any type as I see it especially if they are paying for it out of their own pocket. If being paid for by TriMet, then it's a different matter. Fried chicken crosses many "demographics" also.

Anonymous said...

I do not see how they are catering to all groups just a limited group. Operators are a diverse group. I have yet to see Latino, Asian, Russians, European, Middle East etc, etc, food and music offered by the management typys. Don't get me wrong I like chicken and Kool and the Gang but I also like all diversity and all cultures and that is what we are made up as.

Anonymous said...

The 'diversity' is nice and all that and we are in Portlandia so we are all hip etc etc.

How come Trimet sucks so bad?

Maybe they should try something different and try on concentrating on providing transit instead of internal diversity.

Flatpicker John said...

aren't there some real issues to deal with? This is Sarah Palin laughable

Anonymous said...

To Flatpicker John:

Leave Sarah Palin out of this or we could be here all day long listing all of Obama's mounting failures and where we are as a country today.

With only a 29% approval rate today and a country headed by an imperial dictator that ignoors constitutional law (see several recent suprememe court rulings) we currently have more unemployed since the Carter administration.

Because of you we have an imperalistic employer who banks on that by holding over our heads that we can be replaced because there is so many unemployed out there who would do our job and for less just to feed their families. These are desperate times with the highest amount of people collecting food stamps and governmenet assistance.

You probably voted for Kitzhaber too. Well he appointed the board who looks the other way when Tri Mets General Manager violated a long standing agreement concerning our health benifits when we retire why McFarlane, Lomax, Stedman, Hanson, etc take no cut but give themselves excessive raises and then cry poverty. Sorta like your Hillary Clinton.

Palin was so spot on and had such incredidible insight and vision the direction this country would be heaied if Obama was elected. Even CNN had to admit she was right.

Our grandchildren and their grandchildren are strapped with this incredible debt caused by the Obama administration. Those federal dollars (that excessive hefty tax that is pulled out of my paycheck) for last century archiac light rail expansion is financially unsubtainable in the future. Tri Met will not have the dollars to support itself with those federal dollars when they are gone and they know it and that is why they are embellishing this poverty scheme they blame union employees on.

Your Obama who promissied I will get to keep my doctor. Well he lied. I DON"T GET TO KEEP MY DOCTOR. After 30 years of private practice due to increased financial challenges in the health care system over the past several years my doctor had to close his office becasue of the Affordable Care Act or in other words your Obama Care.

I am not laughing Flatpicker John. I am down right scared for our country our future and how I am going to be able to support myself as I hit my golden years and pray to God and thats right I said God that my health doesn't go south because of the constant beating my body has taken driving those damn busses all those years for Tri Met.





Anonymous said...

I love this blog.

Unknown said...

Hey Al, what was this post about again???
HB