Examining the positions of Bruce Hansen

We will continue to document the history of the Bruce Hansen presidency between now and the next election.

Below is a presentation that Bruce Hansen made to the Trimet board of directors last June. 

Remember that Mcfarlane said at the very beginning that all he wanted was for union employees to give up the 100% health benefit in favor of the much degraded 80% benefit with much higher deductibles and copay's.

As we know now Mcfarlane achieved his goals. And I have yet to see anything in writing as to why this 'deal' was to the benefit of the union members.

I couldn't care less that "82%" of those who voted (more than 900 didn't even bother to vote) voted yes. 

Apparently they were all 'talked into it'.

The only explanation I have heard from members is 'this is the best we can get' and if we don't vote yes there will be '400+ takeaways  when we  lose in arbitration '.

In other words the whole deal was achieved by 'scaring' union members

I didn't go the the 'official meeting' so I don't get to know what the rational is for the president supporting this.
One of my big issues with our union is that if we don't go to the meeting we just don't get to know anything about union business.
How is that a proper policy?

So where is the ATU official statement as to why members needed to take Mcfarlane's 80% insurance?
It doesn't exist!

When there exists nothing in writing what that really means is 

'we have no good explanation'.

The union got nothing in exchange that I am aware of, except a higher clothing allowance.

Really Trimet?

Trimet bus 62 is only once an hour after 8:30 pm?

You've gotta be kidding.

That's a F-A-I-L!

There is plenty of blame to go around

Past ATU757 president Jonathan Hunt handed away the right to strike and agreed to the 'winner take all' arbitration.

Jonathan Hunt

I know I have been very unkind to our current union president. A man I worked hard to see elected to his current post.
 I admit he tried to call me but I refused to take the call.

The reason for that was I know he would have made a serious attempt to schmooze me and I wasn't in the mood for that at the time. I was wounded. From where I sit the union president just handed away a big chunk of my pension with this deal.

I saw it as surrender. I saw it as aiding and abetting the enemy (Mcfarlane and his evil henchman Stedmen). 
I saw it as being thrown under the bus by our leadership to which Bruce is the main personality.

So I have been blasting Bruce ever since this 'defeat'.

But let's refocus for a minute. The fault is not just Bruce Hansen.

Bruce Hansen didn't hand away the right to strike without even bothering to ask union members.

Bruce Hansen didn't agree to a ridiculous arbitration process that allows winner take all.

That was Jonathan Hunt that allowed all this mess to come into existence.

Lets not forget that he played a major role in all this.

There is no way I can forgive Bruce for just throwing all the retirees under the bus. He should have taken it all the way into the arbitration. 

It's one thing to be forced into compliance its another to provide aid and comfort to the enemy.

Bruce bailed out Mcfarlane way to easily, and now Mcfarlane gets a bonus.

Dumpster full of new tire chains being thrown away at Center St.

What's Trimet gonna do with this place?

The answer to that question is HERE!

ATU757 resorts to 'spin' just like Trimet does

Trimet is well known for its masterful manipulation of facts in order to 'spin' actual facts to make themselves look better than they actually are.

Here we have the union doing the exact same thing by eliminating the fact that over 900 union members didn't return ballots, which is a significant number and should have been included in this 'release'

The full release is HERE!

Something you will never see Trimet doing

Actually making bus close calls publicly available!

Is Trimet really safe from a potential terrorist threat?

This video says Trimet is completely insecure

TRIMET BUS DRIVER UPSET THAT DISPATCH DIDN'T CALL HER BACK

She had a customer conduct issue and it took forever for dispatch to call her back!

AUDIO HERE

Not a word on Trimet Facebook about the contract deal

Which is very curious indeed!

TriMet Here

We were sold out!

Blinky lights are a winner

I have heard that this years crop of Trimet blinky lights are a real winner. Interestingly each year the lights they hand out are different in terms of quality of the lights. This is one little thing that really makes a difference in the visibility of waiting bus riders. Drivers recognize the blinky lights and automatically stop.

I remember when Trimet introduced the blinky lights, they became a bus operator secret society hello code and you'd see bus drivers turning on their blinkies as they passed in the night 

In the video below you will see two buses passing in the night blinking each other 'back in the day' when men were men and bus drivers were bus drivers and the world actually knew that transit bus drivers are the safest drivers on the road.

ATU 757 BAILS OUT TRIMET MGMT INCOMPETENCE

Thanks to the ATU concessions Trimet managers now say they can afford its union personnel. Union members (especially retirees who had  to endure  Greek style cuts to their pensions) were forced to pay for Trimet's  funding light rail projects instead of their employees over the last 25 years.

The most vexing part of this to me is that these current and former executives continue accumulating massive wealth while at the same time literally stealing the pensions from their retirees. And what's worse than the Trimet executives stealing the pensions away is the unions complicity in this action.

In the presentation below we will see how much money this contract deal is saving Trimet. From what they are saying this should be the end of cuts for employees and retirees. Future employees will have to eat shit (but they take the job knowing that)  but at least this seems to be (if you can believe them which is not easy to do since Trimet executives have a long record of lying) the end of the give backs for the current crop of suckers that find themselves involved with this organization. Remember a year or two from now this testimony will be lost to the wind and the oligarchs can roll out whatever false propaganda suits them at that time.

Another Banner morning for Trimet commuters

There is no better place to document the life of Trimet commuters than twitter

BLAST FROM THE PAST

The Deadly Blind "spot" on Transit Buses

It was suggested by member MAX BRT (in this thread) that perhaps a discussion on this topic may be interesting if not beneficial in calling attention to this issue. Being new to this forum, I'm surprised it hasn't already been discussed or maybe it has in bits and pieces.

There have been many accidents involving pedestrians and transit buses making left turns. Many have been fatal to the pedestrian who is legally crossing the street and bears no fault whatsoever in contributing to the accident. Many of you might remember the incident in Portland Oregon several years ago where two pedestrians lost their lives and several in the same group were injured while crossing the street in a marked crosswalk with a green light when a left-turning TriMet transit bus made contact with the group of five (click here).

Now those of you who don't drive buses might ask "how can you not see a group of five people crossing the street?" And even those of you who have driven buses may have their doubts. However, it's been shown that a pedestrian or even a group of pedestrians can get "lost" from the driver's vision when certain conditions coincide ...the position, location, and size of the left mirror, the thickness of the A-pillar of the bus windshield, other transit related items that may be mounted in the area of the A-pillar (such as the radio handset and/or controls, run card holder, microphone stanchion, auxiliary gauges, etc.), the angle of the turn, the speed of the coach, how fast the pedestrians are walking, the position the driver sits in the seat ...amongst other contributing conditions like weather, amount of light, kind of light, light reflections off glass surfaces insider the coach, etc., etc.

Did Bruce solve this in the latest contract?

Trimet freudian slip

Nice video promoting the use of buses

Akron METRO RTA

Beating down transit workers

It's happened all around the world, transit workers are a 'soft target' for the oligarchs. And it doesn't matter what they are actually making, the script is the same no matter where the cuts are proposed for.

Brown won a wage increase for SEPTA workers - said to be 5 percent over the two years - and didn't resort to a walkout, as in 2009, when he said he was "the most hated man in Philadelphia."
Despite the handshakes and smiles for the cameras Friday night, Brown didn't settle the pension issue that he had said was the main sticking point during talks.(already given away by our union)

He had argued that TWU members were getting shortchanged on their retirement benefits compared with SEPTA managers.(that's an understatement in terms of Trimet)

That debate will continue.
The other cloud on the horizon is health-care contributions.
SEPTA workers, like many employees of large companies, have relatively generous health insurance benefits.
Such "Cadillac" insurance plans will soon be taxed more heavily than others under terms of the Affordable Care Act.

SEPTA settlement leaves hard choices for another day

Trimet provides false information to its riders

A bus bridge is not a 'delay' its a 'service disruption' and they should let riders know clearly that there is a bus bridge in progress.

Even Trimet rail operators get accosted

#trimet Neal Burlen wanted to file charges http://t.co/XyZ5bisiX2 http://t.co/4UXmcsQFy3 http://t.co/Hjrv6YDjrZ

— TriMet Scanner (@trimetscanner) November 3, 2014

WAS BRUCE HANSEN LYING WHEN HE SAID THIS TO THE TRIMET BOARD?

Or was he proven wrong? Either way Bruce loses!

Trimet having problems filling controller slots

A current Trimet employee comments:

Hey Al,

Check out this letter that is going out to ALL light rail operators. Seems they are really desperate to hire controllers. Problem is, the job SUCKS and nobody wants to be associated with the group. There are 3 or 4 controllers that are RUDE, MEAN and like to DEGRADE operators so nobody wants to be associated with them.

Design flaws plague bus drivers

This is the exact same problem that Trimet bus drivers face!