TRIMET UNION EMPLOYEES- BEWARE OF YOUR EMPLOYER, THEY ARE OUT TO DESTROY YOU

TriMet’s most contentious proposal is likely to be a further shift of the cost of its expensive health care plan to employees. Before last year, TriMet workers had what most workers used to have: fully-paid health insurance covering employees and their dependents. But last year an arbitrator imposed TriMet’s previous offer in its entirety, including a “90-10” health insurance plan in which workers pay 10 percent of medical bills, up to a yearly out-of-pocket maximum of $1,500. Now TriMet is proposing an “80-20” plan, where workers would pay 20 percent, up to the maximum

There are also little, petty proposals that are sure to provoke members. For example, TriMet is proposing to end its practice of providing clean work clothes to bus and light rail mechanics. TriMet proposes to give workers each $150 a year to purchase their own coveralls. Workers would be responsible for laundering them, but it’s unclear where they would take them to be washed. Are they supposed to bring home their workwear, covered in diesel fuel, industrial-strength solvents, and brake dust, and wash them in the same washing machine as the baby clothes?

ATU 757 vice president Jonathan Hunt

Hunt said TriMet has a high-quality state-certified apprenticeship training program for mechanics. Because TriMet hires those mechanic apprentices from within, the program serves as a beacon of hope for upward mobility for the transit agency’s least-paid workers, like bus cleaners. Enrolling in the program, they can learn a skill over several years, earn a state credential, and rise to a living wage. No more of that, TriMet proposes. TriMet proposes to strike the contract language about hiring from within, and hire people off the street instead. 

TriMet’s long-delayed bargaining off to a slow start | nwLaborPress