Chris Day

Last night dispatch sent a BDS message reminding us about pulling forward to 1st position while on layover and the open door policy. Dispatch states that it is getting cold out and customers need a warm place while waiting for the bus. If TriMet is so concerned about our customers waiting out in the cold for a bus then why not improve all the stops and shelters throughout the system instead of causing interruptions in our break time? Operators need uninterrupted breaks yet TriMet does many things to make that as difficult as possible.

Oregon State law provides uninterrupted breaks for all employees who are not exempt from the law. Because we have a working wage agreement we are exempt from this law. TriMet has managed to make it so that they only have to schedule 80% of the operators with scheduled breaks and they only have to meet breaks 50% of the time of those 80% scheduled. If they don’t meet it then they have a few sign ups to get it corrected. The reason we are exempt from the Oregon lay is because Oregon assumes that a working wage agreement would accede Oregon’s minimum requirements. We need to find a way to make sure 100% of our Brothers and Sisters receive at least the minimum break requirements and stop accepting this abuse from TriMet.