Trimess

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

OPAL update on Trimet general manager

Here's an update from OPAL:

Update to the community stakeholders regarding Trimet’s impending hire of a general manager:

Monday, January 29, 2018

Victory?


Saturday, January 27, 2018

Trimet operators band together to form a bus driver rescue team


Friday, January 26, 2018

Neil Mcfarlane "farewell tour"


Trimet management continues down the low road

http://www.atu757.org/another-trimet-bus-operator-stranded-on-the-side-of-the-road/

https://t.co/68fSC58qaW


Outsourcing the General Manager

The more I think about the process that was used to select Kelsey the more it disturbs me.
 If you watch that video of the transit recruitment woman you'll see that the entire process is controlled by the  public transportation industrial complex. 
All the people that make up KL2-Connect are ex public transportation officials themselves. 

While Trimet officials boast of allowing input into the "type of characteristics" of the future general manager, the actual selections, interviews, and final decisions were all done in secret. Nobody even knows who actually applied for the job or what their backgrounds were. 
We know nothing about any of the applicants other than there were so many black men, black woman, and white men applied.  
That's an abomination  is precisely the type management that should be opposed.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Portland Activists cause Trimet board to delay general manager hiring


It's probably just a head fake. 
Government always delays unpopular decisions in the hope that the citizens will move on to the next outrage and forget about the previous outrage. 
It's a well calculated strategy and works most of the time.
 Mainstream media, which was created and functions as a method to keep the citizens distracted and misinformed  by the never ending barrage of "breaking news" works hand in hand with government on things like this.
The Trimet puppets actually have the nerve to put forth the argument that Kelsey was the most qualified IN THE WORLD was preposterous on its face.
In any event the activists have caused the puppets to DELAY Kelsey's coronation 

Mcfarlane: smug as hell


Trimet board meeting part 1- Doug Kelsey/Shirley Block/Anthony Forester/Jonathan Hunt


Another heartless bus driver

The media loves these stories of ‘bad’ bus drivers. I always find it curious how these stories come at at the exact same time as Trimet management is under scrutiny

https://t.co/bnERpzOzDl

NW Labor Press article on yesterday’s board meeting

https://nwlaborpress.org/2018/01/atu-local-757-blasts-trimets-pick-for-general-manager/

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Henry Beasley on the assault problem

Brothers and Sisters, (Part 2)

Going over my verifiable logging of the various assaults in the district and putting them together for everyone. The numbers may be off by a few here or there, but here is the list of logged events. These are the "notable events" in 2017.

Notable events:

Mcfarlane was smirking during ATU testimony

Upper right hand corner, Mcfarlane thinks its funny

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Trimet ends paper tickets and transfers at stores

Totalitarianism at its best

http://www.opalpdx.org/2018/01/alert-paper-trimet-ticket-sales-ending-february-1st/

ATU757 statement on the bogus general manager recruitment

https://www.atu757.org/trimet-chooses-broken-status-quo-with-new-general-manager/

OPAL statement

http://www.opalpdx.org/2018/01/we-demand-a-halt-to-trimet-gm-hiring-process/

Trimet sock puppets meeting tomorrow

I believe that if you want to ask Kelsey (the 'new' hack) any questions then you can do it at this meeting. I wouldn't waste my time, we know the deal. It always sounds so good. Nothing will change under Kelsey's rule. He's had ample time to be trained by Mcfarlane exactly what to do to keep the status quo moving ahead. The status quo has been good for the forces behind gentrification for Portland and there is no reason to believe that status quo will be changing

Anyway lets take a look at the "official" business including this months pork barrel contracts

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Trimet horror show





It seemed like there was a light at the end of the tunnel when management and our union came to agreement on our latest contract. Then I noticed the light dimmed shortly after we approved the contract. Seems they left their high beams on just long enough to blind us, then added fog lights for special effect.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

TriMet bus driver helps save a life


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WqEjSJJjrxU

Damn good letter to the Oregonian

If TriMet's executive board would stop congratulating itself on how grand it is, board members might notice huge gaps in service. Having lived in Northwest, Southeast and now Southwest Portland, I can compare and report service in the close-in westside neighborhoods are abysmal. 
The latest example of TriMet's failure to serve was for the annual First Run & Walk beginning midnight Dec. 31 into Jan. 1. TriMet can get you downtown but not home again. No bus service was available. Yes, the light rail ran late, but those of us living close-in have no access to light rail from neighborhoods such as Multnomah Village, John's Landing, and Lair Hill. If light rail can run until 3 a.m. on New Year's Day, why not the buses?
Other gaps in service are weekday and weekend evenings. If Portlanders want to bus downtown for a lecture, theater or other events and live close-in, getting home is always a problem after 10 p.m. Passengers will have waits of up to an hour. Again, this is a failure to serve. I have found TriMet's bus drivers, trip planners and customer service representatives to be very kind, patient and helpful. To TriMet executives, I say stifle your arrogance, take off your blinders and look honestly at your failure to serve this tri-county community.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

The Trimet Deke N Blue



Operators define an "assault" as any action by another which threatens our safety. This could be a menacing verbal threat, someone purposefully brushing our shoulder on the way out the door while cursing us, a drink thrown at us, being spit or puked upon, having insults screamed in our face, or an actual physical assault. The district, for some strange reason, tends to solely define "assault" as physical aggression. This is misleading in that it furthers the notion that we're still expected to operate after our bodies have experienced a severe biological shock. The "fight or flight" response to a threat or an assault is scientifically proven to have a lasting effect on the victim. It can sometimes take weeks, months or even years to recover from it. The adrenaline rush, hormonal explosion and muscle tension can be thoroughly exhausting even though the crisis may only last a few minutes. Those who continue in service after such an incident are not fully capable of driving safely because the operator's mind constantly replays the incident. Instead, we need to concentrate on all we're trained to do in the seat. This is called "distracted," or even "impaired" driving, which in other contexts is illegal. Therefore, as far as many operators are concerned, the term "assault" covers a wide spectrum of offenses. It's certainly more inclusive of the open hands we're faced with on the job than the district's deceptively-slim definition of the term.

Read the entire essay HERE

The death of @trimetdriver

http://the-death-of-trimet-driver.blogspot.com/

Monday, January 1, 2018

Trimet December board meeting part 5


Randy (the hack) Stedmen presents the ATU757 contract to the sock puppets.
The concessions the company made to the union were offset by the ability to contract out light rail maintenance.