ATU 757 ASKS FOR THE RECORD TO BE CORRECTED

The Amalgamated Transit Union wants to set the record straight. For some time now, the Union has not commented on a TriMet misstatement of fact that the media has picked up and reprinted. That statement appeared again in TriMet’s Friday night press release. That release stated:

This is a major improvement, and one TriMet has been seeking for the last 2 1/2 years because it means a bus operator must have 9 or 10 hours off after they have concluded their assignment, rather than being able to take just a few hours off.

“Since I am new to the office of president, I thought perhaps TriMet’s statement was correct, so I asked staff to search the files,” responds Bruce Hansen, President of Amalgamated Transit Union. “What the Union found was that TriMet raised an issue of a 10-hour gap in early 2011 and then dropped it. Thereafter, TriMet focused only on a 7-hour gap and only as that gap was applied to light rail operators. The Union agreed to accept that change. Copies of the correspondence showing this are attached.”

“I could find nothing in our files to indicate TriMet ever informed the Union that a few bus operators were driving 22 hours straight. The first we knew of that was when the Oregonian published the Joseph Rose article.” By issuing this record correction, Hansen is only asking that the misstatement no longer be printed.