We here at blog central have polled various union members after they attended today's Informational meeting.
We predict that the contract will pass easily. It appears that the fear of going to another arbitration is enough to convince union members that is to their advantage to accept this contract.
Are they right? I have no idea.
(my information tells me that going into arbitration and losing will result in the exact same contract so voting yes or no wouldn't result in any actual difference in the end. The union painted itself against the wall, no right to strike, a 'winner take all' arbitration procedure and an extremely passive union workforce have combined to hand this victory to Mr Mcfarlane. As I said in a previous post, you have to hand it to Mcfarlane for pulling this off. You have to remember who the players are in this game. Very sophisticated, well educated Trimet executives vs a bunch of people who were basically 'bus drivers'. Who knows if they have any advanced education at all yet they become union officers by winning popularity contests. Is the union even worth belonging to as a retiree? I'm having my doubts. All that extra money that was collected from members last year is down the drain, and the union 'officers' continue receiving their nice fat six figure paychecks. The motto of today's working man is 'be happy you're getting anything'. Time will tell how long the 'anything' will last. )
The Union and Tedesco did a great job of pushing the "fear" factor today and all through out the negotiations. The union conceded from the beginning to the media, we know we will need to take cuts. A retiree couldn't get a contract mailed to them because the union said it is to expensive. Wonder how much it cost to have Tedesco all day? It certainly makes me wonder where this local is going besides in the toilet. Sad day for Union operators and mechanics all through this region, once TriMet goes so does the rest of the properties.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, I'm thinking of withdrawing from the union completely at this point.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that really surprises me is that people are voting 'yes' to cutting their wages and benefits.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's happened anywhere else in the country.
Portland being Portland its no surprise. There is no activist population at all in this city other than bicyclists and only in a city like Portland would there exist this sort of powerful lobby.
The city is an anomaly really in so many respects to most cities in America.
One party rule for decades, the 'creative class' (whatever that is) that is more interested in soccer games and beer than in politics.
Weird city indeed