BRUCE PEEK ELABORATES ON THE OVERTIME SCANDAL

Dear Al you may want to mention that Bruce hansen has filed several
freedom of informatoion act requests with trimet to find out just how
many drivers at specific cost levels are receiving benefit coverage
and trimets true cost as per the confirmation of benefit statements.
How many get health care benefits at $22,000 per year. Darn few I'll
bet.
Keep in mind that there are 280 mini runners like you and the
Fungster were, who cannot ever get benefits costing more than three
quarters of the full time benefit cost- ever no matter what. Most
likely what management has done is the old false equivalency
statement. Compare apples to oranges. This is done by adding
everything that could possibly be considered a ,' health care
benefit,',like uniform allowance, free trimet pass to ride the system
at $1,000 per year to boost their claimed benefit payout to
astronomical levels and then falsely claim Oh My God the operators
have better benefits than Barack Obama- they make more money than Mitt
Romney- how will we ever bravely soldier on with our beloved mass
transit systerm with those greedy drivers leaching up all of the
hardworking taxpayers money?
The other thing is you may want to mention that Roses oregonian
fatigue piece never bothered to explain how extra board operators go
about making good money. he never explained how it works. No one on
the extra board makes over $100,000 a year by workoing multiple 22
hour days. At least no one does it and lives more than 6 months. The
way an extra board operator makes money is to have a morning run, come
back to the  garage and then do a tripper which adds say 3 and 1/2
hours onto their 9 hour morning piece. Then they work their Day off
and calculate on the calandar where the 14th day will ocurr and sign
to take a floating vacation day on the 14th day. Thus they average
12and 1/2 hour days get a full day of rdo overtime and a continuing
cash flow on their floating vacation day. Rose also never bothered to
explain what board operators are for. They come in in the early
morning  say 3:30 am
and watch the board. If someone scheduled for a run does not come in
the extraboard operator then signs the missing drivers run, grabs
their pouch and sprints for the bus yard. Thus board operators make
sure runs are covered and that the system   runs as smoothly as it
does. Without extra board operators the whole system would come to a
crashing halt