TriMet’s SPANISH INQUISITION POLICY

By Neal Berlin regarding the contract negotiations


Good morning Union brother and sister, I fell that the retiree's should be asking for a larger increase in there pension aleast 6% more due to the fact they have fought and stood together for the whole of the Union. They have given up so many loses over the year and their a small group. That the only way they can survive the changes in the WWA agreement is to give them more money. I also believe driver should receive more than 3% due to the fact the other small group have received larger increase over many years of the contracts. And we need to work on better working condition due to the fact of SIP policy. Oh ya, we never seen that SIP . policy. And for the whole who is still working than give more for long and faithful  service.  We stand together

I could not be more in agreement with your proposals, I have a “ dog in the fight “, I am retired.  I fought for what I thought was right for the rank & file during my tenure on the front line as a operator,bus and rail.  Unfortunately,I became by default the President of I Told You So Club.  Going thru my papers just the other day I came across a letter addressed to ATU 757 members by then President Ron H., dated May 1997 that proclaimed the NEW CSI policy that would help operators get a fair hearing about customer complaints.  Over the next five years from 1997, as I recall the CSI policy was refined and made better to ensure that no operators where facing unwarranted discipline from outrages or unsubstantiated complaints, unlike the current SIP policy.  The letter states that this replace a TriMet policy at that time was unwritten,not fair and punitive to point of termination.  What I can infer this was a “side letter “ to the contract.  The key points of the CSI policy was the complaint had to be thoroughly investigated before the operator was brought into a managers office with the union representative.  Also NO third person complaints got put into waste paper can.  This policy took time, effort and money to administer.  Guess what happened?  Yup,the CSI policy was replaced  by what I call “ Spanish Inquisition Policy “, guilty, guilty, without any investigation: SIP.  The Union was asleep and the SIP policy became the norm.  Much more to the history but I am probably the only one can remembers or cares.