Trimess

Trimess

Thursday, January 9, 2014

About our union healthcare

I have to admit although I am a union member and support unions I find myself agreeing with the 'conservative' point of view in a number of areas. I would call myself a bleeding heart libertarian politically. 
John Charles for example may be no friend of the union man but some of his transit literature and presentations just make sense. All points of view have some validity and must be studied. You cannot ignore that which you disagree with.

 Which leads me to the next question. The question here is retiree benefits in the form of medical coverage. That was negotiated by our union in lieu of raises back when the money was flowing like water at Trimet. This was the same time that  Fred Hansen negotiated that obscene pension of his with the sock puppets. Well the money is still flowing like water at Trimet but its not gushing anymore.  Trimet has these grandiose expansion plans ('renew the blue'/southwest corridor etc etc etc ) and it needs to hire hundreds and hundreds of employees to keep all that stuff going.

 So its perfectly reasonable that they change the retiree benefit, FOR NEW PEOPLE COMING IN! Sacrifice the unborn as its called in union terminlogy.
If they want to abrogate the contracts they have with all their union employees then I expect the oligarchs to give something back too. Take back 50% of Freds, Playfairs, Clarks, and any other retiree earning 10k a month or more in retirement.End the double dipping of Nelson/Sapporta/Auxier.

 Union members should never submit to being the scapegoats for Trimet's problems.

 In any event I had a pretty decent discussion of this with MAX from the REDLINE about all this which is reprinted here.


Alyourpalster said...
We're doomed aren't we? YUP I knew that years ago. You know as well as I do that none of those cities will be leaving Trimet. So what really is the motivation for that Cascade report? Look MAX, I'm all for revising the union contract and retirement stuff, as soon as they cut Fred Hansens Olivia Clarks pension in half and throw the CRC and MLR under the bus.
Until that time I will fight tooth and nail against all want to take this stuff out on us alone!
If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.
Thomas Jefferson
Max said in reply to Alyourpalster...
I love that Jefferson quote, Al; it's so eerily dead-on.
Here's what I think went down: Wheels has been hammering on about how huge union benefits are gonna bankrupt the development Agency in four years (at a recent meeting, he actually asked if they're a health care agency trying to provide transit! My answer to him: you're neither.), so I think CPI's Charles simply jumped on that because they ran the numbers some time ago and recognized that the development Agency's infatuation with all things rail will doom us all. Since by law TriMess can't go bankrupt, it's going to impose increasingly higher taxes on businesses - forcing many of them into bankruptcy instead.
Charles looked at the successes we've seen in Wilsonville and other towns - Wilsonville actually runs buses to the Barbur Blvd. transit center - and figured that towns like Tigard could save themselves a lot of business revenue (and likely achieve more relevant services) by following the example of the others and dumping TriMess. He simply used Wheels' own words as the promotional vehicle, so to speak.
Of course, the mouthpieces - most of them hail from tv, as I recall - claim that CPI is anti-transit, but it's not. It is, however, anti-waste, which is a concept that TriMet's "management" can't quite wrap their heads around.
Alyourpalster said in reply to Max...
I love that nickname "wheels" and its a very interesting analysis
Max said in reply to Alyourpalster...
I confess, "Wheels" is faster to type than his name. I'm kind of into shortcuts. I'd like to see your take on that CPI/TriMet thing; you seem to imply that I've missed something - which is entirely possible; I've got no inside lines.
Alyourpalster said in reply to Max...
Maybe I'm just paranoid but I sense that CPI and TRIMET are collaborating in the whole scapegoating the union as the biggest enemy of the Portland (er, I mean Porkland) transit riding public along with KATU as the main tool of the propaganda. Keeping the public focused on the union while 'wheels' and his cronies loot the vault so to speak. Now I know for a fact that the 'bumbling' Mary Festch is a past employee of KATU (as is Roberta Aldstadt) and we've seen this joint attack before.
Now the CPI report, which I admit has some great research, pretty much shouts out the employee cost as the big bug a boo. Who does that serve? The execs directly and CPI is no pal of the unions.
Maybe its just me. I've seen John Charles and Mary Festch acting pretty cozy together at several board meetings.
Max said in reply to Alyourpalster...
I don't see CPI in that light, though I completely agree regarding TriMess and the media. As mentioned earlier, I think Charles of CPI is using the words of Wheels against him in order to prevent him from continuing his looting (and warning towns like Tigard of the impending costs). And while I've seen John Charles and Mary Festch acting pretty cozy together at several board meetings. is interesting, I view it as a hacker ploy. The easiest way to gain access to information - and computers - is via soching (establishment of social ties). The alternative is the brute force approach, which I've done twice. Accidentally, of course, as I was just trying to speed up connection times to a couple of international networks by tweaking ATT strings. I mean, I would never deliberately break into servers, because that would be wrong. So let me be perfectly clear about that.
That said, accidentally breaking in takes a lot of time. In my case, it paid off because I discovered back-doors into the networks; I contacted them to let them know what I found, and they paid me several thousand dollars and gave me free access to their for-pay networks when I sent them the code strings.
But John Charles doesn't have those chops, so he employs (I suspect) socializing (which is actually the preferred tool for hackers). I can't speak to whether or not it's a deliberate tactic on his part, but it's incredibly effective - especially with PR types and other lower-tier staff.
I'm not saying that you have no reason for paranoia, because I believe that a certain amount of that is essential. I just think that, at this point, CPI isn't your reason for concern. TriMess most certainly is, and thanks for validating my suggestion that a lot of their mouthpieces are media detritus. I thought I remembered that, but couldn't find a solid reference to back it up.
Wheels is most certainly out to get you, or to gut you - along with other present and former line staff. He wants to live high on the hog, Goldschmidt-style, and you guys need to be butchered.
Alyourpalster said in reply to Max...
I agree with you there, its not John Charles that is our 'enemy' its Trimet management. At least John Charles is honest about his intentions, can't say the same for Trimet execs
Max said in reply to Alyourpalster...
As noted, I don't find CPI nor Charles to be "anti-transit" - just opposed to waste. And rail's a huge waste of limited resources, while TriMet "managers" get huge salaries in exchange for kowtowing to developers' want lists. Oh, but it's all because of drivers.
What idiot buys that line, other than a politician? But I repeat myself....
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