CLASS ACTION UPDATE

As readers of this blog know I and  about 50 other current and ex employees of Trimess mess transit district are involved in a law suit against the company for ripping us off  while we were forced to make road reliefs during our employment.
Trimet would force us to begin and end our shifts at different locations and would pay us a menial amount for the time spent in getting to the starting locations. For example if you worked at Merlo garage and were driving a 12 route you might be forced to pick up your bus in downtown Portland and end your shift at Merlo garage. Trimet pays it drivers about $2.50 to get to downtown from Merlo garage even though it consumes an hour of your time getting there  before the bus you are relieving shows up. The basis of the law suit is that drivers should be paid the hourly wage when being forced to do these road reliefs, not some trivial amount.

Anyway yesterday was the first hearing.

The hearing was attended by our 2 attorneys, JOEL YOUNG (who has fought this battle against other districts and won) and PAUL BREED who is the local counsel in the case.

Trimet sent a small army, 5 attorneys to be exact, I wasn't there so I don't know who they were.

Trimet put forth the argument that was expected, namely that since Trimet is involved in 'interstate commerce' they are not bound by the rules as stated.

The judge agreed that people do take the red line to the airport who then travel across state lines and residents of Washington State travel via C-TRAN and possibly transfer to Trimet.

He was skeptical of TRIMET's assertion that the case should be dismissed on those facts and asked for documentation of the numbers of people that Trimet carries that actually cross state lines.

TRIMET attorneys had no statistical information to provide the judge.  TRIMET attorneys then asked for a continuance to round up the necessary documents. (what a disgrace, showing up in court to make an argument that you are not prepared to show evidence actually exists. Lets see what 'statistics' they come up with. Should be interesting.)
The judge granted TRIMET a continuance anyways to prove their case.

It should be said that the judge in the case lives in the HOLLYWOOD district and rides MAX regularly so he is familiar with TRIMET and its riders.

To be continued.