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| Dora being interviewed by KGW |
DECLARATION OF Dora
I, Dora Morgan, HEREBY DECLARE the following to be a true statement to the best of my knowledge:
My name is Dora Morgan and I have been a TriMet bus operator for a total of seventeen years. Thirteen of those years were part time. When going full time I lost my seniority and had to start over again. “Block runs” has taken away the seniority I have built up again by going full time and placing me at the bottom of the list one more time.
After viewing the first signup with the new “block run” implementation, I concluded that this was simply a way for TriMet to usurp member’s seniority without little or no thought into how “block runs” were going to interfere in ones daily routines. “Block runs” is a poor way for management to cut the financial corners at the expense of public safety.
I found that on numerous runs, there were days, times and routes that I could have chosen with my seniority before “block runs” were implemented. As an operator at TriMet and a union member, I knew that after working for years and gaining seniority, I would be able to sign work, creating a healthier quality of life for me and my family.
No one benefits from this “block run” system and operators with little or no seniority are thrown into the worst schedules. New drivers should have consistent schedules to allow them time to ease into a very demanding routine.
While it took me a long time to gain seniority, that seniority allowed me to choose my own work, times I wanted to start and get off, routes and buses to drive and more importantly, the ability to choose the work I wanted that accommodated my personal commitments.
“Block runs” were not in the contract or approved by membership. Changing the terms of the collective bargaining agreement without approval from the membership, stripped me of seniority and restricted ability to choose the work I wanted, has cost me in terms of what work I was able to bid, with the days off I wanted. It has cost me overtime pay that I would have been able to bid on routes that my seniority would have allowed me to bid which resulted in less pay that I could have earned for it not the “block run” implementation. Most importantly it has taken away my valuable family time.
I declare the above statements to be true to the best of my knowledge.
April 29, 2015
Trimet driver Dora Morgan helps catch bike thief from al m on Vimeo.
5 comments:
I guess it's time for the women of ATU to stand up and fight! You go ladies!! thank goodness someone realizes if we don't get the blocked runs and Bruce Hansen and his cronies out blocked runs will be in every property! This saves the company a lot of money. They want more more more money!!
Good job Dora, you make us proud!
Al,
I read Sister Morgan's well-written declaration, and I cannot find where she actually said she supports the divisive and partisan unfair labor practice (ULP) complaint filed against union leadership by union leadership, as the title of your article states. The ULP was filed, and as you showed on your earlier post, attached to a list of signatures that were, in fact, gathered under a false pretenses. I have spoken to many of those signatories and asked them if they would have signed the petition if they knew their signatures were going to be attached to a divisive ULP complaint, and without exception all said they would not have signed.
I know Sister Morgan supports my non-partisan effort to petition the joint labor relations committee (both sides, union and management) to restore the choices our seniority have earned us. Our grassroots effort cannot be supplanted or subverted by unscrupulous politicians with a malicious motivation to score votes over their opponents in the upcoming union elections. Our member solidarity is only as strong as our elected leaders are united to fight the real opposition – management tyranny over transit worker’s lives.
When you routinely buy into the divisive rhetoric of one union leader over another, you simply exacerbate the schisms that divide us members. You think you’re doing some kind of good for your fellow co-workers and retirees, but instead I believe your characterization of this member’s statement serves only the management’s objective to divide and conquer. You should be ashamed of yourself, first for stabbing the backs of members with opposing points of view, but more importantly for surrendering your earliest noble intentions of bringing TriMet’s governors to heal for their relentless mismanagement of the public’s trust.
Won’t you step down off of your bully pulpit for one moment to support the sister’s cause and our member-initiated public campaign to STOP PACKAGING BLOCKS? Our petition can be signed online, circulated, and printed in person by going here:
www.change.org/p/stop-packaging-blocks
I don't expect everyone to agree with me or my tactics.
This blog gives voice to the voiceless.
One of those without a voice is me
There has never been any solidarity within our union
Well the bike thief entered my bus tonight & went to jail
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