In the first incident, which the press published completely wrong, a baby was screaming on the bus uncontrollably. According to Trimet safety rules no operator is required to continue driving if there is a safety issue. Claudine was too distracted by the screaming to drive so she pulled over. She even provided candy to help the mom. But the baby wouldn't stop crying so the mom decided to get off the bus.
Claudine even left the bus and tried to persuade the mom to get back on. The mom refused and passengers left in protest.
She followed all the correct procedures.
In the second incident, the mom presented invalid transfers and Claudine 'informed' her that the tickets were no good. The mom went ballistic on Claudine. Another passenger who was appalled by the moms behavior called police. The officer asked Claudine if she would mind taking her home. Claudine balked, so the officer took the woman and her kids home. I'm not sure where the screaming baby came in.
Once again Claudine followed the proper procedure.
In both cases she actually did follow proper Trimet procedure.
Claudine did have lots of complaints, but 97% were unsubstantiated.
It didn't matter to Trimet management, known to play favorites as in the rail supervisor who used excessive force against a minor but did not lose his job.
At Trimet, if they like you you can do no wrong. But if they don't like you they will nit pick you to death. (as they did me)
Claudine did have issues with passengers, after years of suffering abuse at their hands.
She did have no empathy for their plight, but more drivers than just her have that problem.
Maybe she did deserve to be terminated, but not for these two incidents.
9 comments:
The majority of her complaints were fabricated from Sleuth riders who were paid by Trimet to find fault with her as they rode her bus.
95% of the populous just don't complain that much.
It all comes down to if TriMet can nail an Operator, TriMet will.
If it is a service issue, or the fault of an employee other than a bus Operator, TriMet will ignore it or cover it up.
$25 says that the two Fare Inspectors who delayed my morning 94 bus for 10 minutes for no good reason will be given a compliment for "doing their job", even though at best they pulled off ONE guy whose monthly pass was buried in his bag (and was allowed to get back on the bus.)
I'm glad to see you're hot on this case, Al. But I still want our, "Union reps," to go 'on-record' as I want all leaders to be accountable and transparent.
I also believe this sister got 'rail-roaded' and I want our Union leaders to stand up and fight, loud & clear, and not hide in annonymity or wait for the press to call upon them for comments.
Bruce Hansen--pick up the phone and tell Joe Rose to come over with a camera crew so you can give the people the whole truth on the matter...on all matters for that matter...IT MATTERS TO US ALL that you are seen in full color defending the rights of real workers in our community.
...my humble opinion.
Al,
I first met Operator Hendren in 2008 and remained in touch with her periodically through the next year.
I remember her telling me of her desire to get "out of the eye of the storm" from us, (management).
Those kind of remarks from a frontline employee always alerted me. It was a clear indicator to me that we were failing the employee somewhere, somehow.
What I recall is her quest to serve the customers well. It was important to her to run her route on time. Safety was important to her. She did not want to get complaints and in my view, was taking a pro-active path towards improving her working environment. I sent her to an outside class..a course that focused on not letting people push your buttons. I think she liked it and used many of the new tools from the class.
I lost touch with her and I was sad to hear of this latest news.
I sincerely hope Operator Hendren had strong internal support and guided direction these last few years. I wish her the best in her decision to retire. I want you to know that when I met her, I heard and I saw an employee asking for help.
She deserved no less.
Peggy Hanson
7.12.12
I recognized her from the photo in one of the Oregonian articles. I think that maybe why she has some of the complaints is that she is super interested in fare enforcement. I realized that she was the driver who called me out on a transfer that was less than 1 hour expired, I just went ahead and paid fare without incident, but the issue was that the driver of the bus I was transfering from had the paper in the wrong place because it hadn't been 2.5 hours since I boarded the initial bus. Regardless I easily could have gotten pissed and either created an incident or reported her, for me it just wasn't worth hassling over $2.10. I am sure some folks didn't feel the same way. I think the complaints are probably from real people though, because she was very confrontational during the incident with me, even though I was very agreeable and didn't try to argue with her. To be clear though, she wasn't that over the top and I don't think that from what I have seen in reports that she deserved to lose her job.
Amazing....Andrew kicks the shit out shit out of a young man and gets demoted.
This lady gets her name in the news and gets canned.
I think they have a thing for women in the news.
They forced this lady out. Lets not fore get her daughter too.
Oh then Sandi Day,Sandy Mann,.
The key to staying at TM become friends HT or Lomax or even her new gal pal that has newly returned. Swear to become a Union buster by dressing like one and telling on them or setting them up.
Think of it this way,Jermey F hit several people on the train....still employed. Andrew kicked the shit of the kid on the platform...still employed.
the list goes on.
TM will change the flow of water in the middle of the ocean if that is what it takes to get you out the door.
Bull shit policies that you have never seen, managers that can't read them and Fucking Mary playing spin the verse with the press.
Why hasn't someone asked about the money these cash straped assholes are spending on needless shit.?
Claudine was a victim of this job. She was treated disrespectfully so she ended up treating people disrespectfully.
And she also made some very poor decisions, like demanding to continue on rte 57 which she had the option to leave
Claudine is just one of many of the front line that lack support. Driving a bus is a very hard job made harder by the managers that that are driving the the front line crazy.
At the same time the managers are running the dist. off a cliff.
Post a Comment