Henry Beasley questions ATU757 E-Board ethics

The union e-board members are allowed DOUBLE influence over union events. 

They are the ones the make the recommendations to the members, but then they vote again with the members.

The union executive officers (president, vp, secretary) don't get a vote when the members are voting, why do the e-board members get to vote twice? 

The e-board made its recommendation to the members it should be the members that get to vote on whatever the issue is. The fact that the e-board members not only get to vote on whether they support or reject an issue and then get to vote during the general vote skews the results.

There were at least 6 e-board members at the vote on Monday, they voted "NO" which is the recommendation they gave to the general membership. If those e-board members were not allowed to vote with the general membership the monday vote would have been

31 No 29 Yes!

And right now the election results would be 33 "NO" 38 "YES"

The more you see how our union operates the more troubling it becomes

ATU 757 gets permission from the international to violate its own bylaws

This whole saga just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Chris Day called foul over the unions timeline on the election and here we have international president Hanley giving our local permission  to violate the bylaws? What the heck is going on here? 

Click the pics for better viewing

Bylaws change passes at 2nd ATU meeting

At the meeting today the bylaw change passed by a sweeping majority of 9 yes and 2 no.

Yesterdays meeting it was 35 no and 20 yes.

That's 37 no  and 29 yes.

That's only 8 votes short to change the bylaws.

The "machine" only operates at the first charter meeting.

The  problem now is the outlining properties. Unless there is an advocate to speak for  the change to counter the official argument against the change chances are good that members will just follow the instructions of the officers at the meetings, which is "NO".

The bigger question is why do the union officers oppose what to my mind is a very positive change?

Other union locals use runoff elections without problems so why do our officials have such a problem with it?

The only thing I can come up with is that this change is a threat to their positions.

 It would appear that the  current officers are more interested in keeping their jobs than doing the right thing.

The stated reasons for not supporting this are:
1-cost (red herring)
2-election can be challenged (can be challenged now)
3-our current system is 'working' (subjective statement)
4-most other locals use this type (most does not mean better)
5-'professionals' say the time line is flawed (intentionally vague )

Furthermore, if you look at the date of the memo concerning the bylaw change you will see that it was written on February 3, before the first reading! In other words the union officers immediately decided amongst themselves that they would not support it even before any discussion ensued.

See for yourself HERE!

ATU members vote NO to majority rule

The proposal was to create  elections where an officer would need to have at least 50% +1 vote to assume office.

In typical fashion the members present at tonight's union meeting voted to preserve the status quo.

I keep hoping that the more enlightened members of the union will stand up and make changes for the better. I am continuously disappointed . 

Its the same feeling I get when I attend Trimet board meetings. I keep hoping that people will wake up and demand accountability,  but I am always disappointed.

I went to the meeting expecting to cast  a yes vote only to be informed that retirees don't get a vote.
Why am I a member of this union?

 They sold us out in the last contract negotiation and we weren't allowed to vote on that either.

Why am I paying one nickel to this union that does nothing for me?

Light rail operators involved in fatalities face trauma

Something that is never talked about, how light rail operators deal with the trauma of their jobs.
Reprinted from the DENVER POST

Useless Trimet 'news'

I'm always amazed that whenever Trimet makes some sort of silly announcement the mainstream media treats it like its some sort of actual event.

This latest 'news release', which just happens to be released during a pretty bad day for Trimet commuters, is some sort of alternative to the current transit trackers that are available.

Who cares and why is it news?

When it comes to wasteful stupid technology Trimet is the industry leader. We have the cell phone app but that's not good enough for Trimet. Trimet executives have to re-invent the wheel with some new 'state of the art' fare collection system. It's all very nice until you realize that they are taking $30,000,000 out of the general fund for this.

Hey its tax funds, just spend it anyway you want Trimet executives, you own Trimet anyway.

HERE is the 'official' Trimet press release

24 minute delay before Trimet informs riders of delays

In an earlier incident Trimet did apologize for not informing riders what was going on!

Trimet-always trying to pull the wool over the publics eyes

Secretary of State happy with Trimet management

The secretary of states office is pleased because Trimet managers assure them that everything they wanted has become a reality.

Key among them is the new contract which resulted in union capitulation and made Mcfarlane a hero which lead to his absurd bonus and raise
Based on that I think the assumption is that Trimet union employees are happy now. What is not considered is that the union (atu757) used fear as a way to make sure employees voted yes to that contract. Every employee that was hired after the Gabba decision was threatened with loss of everything if they didn't vote yes. That was not a voluntary yes vote, that was a yes vote based on fear of loss. To assume that union employees are happy campers now is suspect

#Trimetized! #Trimessedup!

Dear Mr. Bell (Please see my story, Skanner Newspaper Reporters):

I am contacting you directly to see if you have received my disability/race discrimination complaint that I sent to you months ago. My name is Kimberly Petitt; I am a disabled African American woman.

Fall on the bus 20

Article is reprinted from Sardines Are Only Packed Once: The Whine and the Crash

 Riding east on Barnes Road on the 20 Burnside in December just after dark, I'm nervous. Barnes is snaking down a hill and the the bus is picking up speed on the wet pavement as the driver makes it whine. The bus feels too big for the lane.

Lit cigarette and gas can on the bus.

The very best of the Trimet tweets

And for a look at what's really going on at Trimet check Trimet Scanners feed

KOIN covers the bus driver looking at the wrong thing

Get the bus driver!

Interesting because this is the same case that Joe Rose brought to Trimet's attention two weeks ago and never got an answer. KOIN picked up on the story.

Bus was obviously stopped but drivers really should have enough brains to know better. Hard to feel bad for operators that are just plain stupid about this. I personally think its a witch hunt but there is nothing that can be done to call off the dogs.

More phony Trimet social media crap

So we know for sure that Trimet is paying companies to promote the Trimet 'brand' and that 'thumbs up' on Facebook and all these tweets we are seeing are just bullshit

Phony Twitter account HERE!

Trimet General Manager Report

Ron @TelemachusRome live tweeting from Trimet

Trimet ignores Joe Rose

As we know Joe hit Neil pretty hard with Neil's tax payer funded bonanza so it appears he is now facing the wrath of the Trimet cronies who refuse to respond to his requests for information.
Interesting how they can do that with total impunity. WOW, complete lack of accountability, just amazing.

Bus driver told "I'm gonna slap the fuck out of you"

This is what the Trimet training program does not prepare brand new drivers for.

Trimet dispatch here

Intriguing idea!

Phony pro Trimet twitter accounts?

When I see stuff like this going through the twitter feed I start wondering  what is going on.

No real person actually would tweet something like this. It reads just like a Trimet ad. 

A review of "DONALD LEE'S" account shows us that its nothing but ads for products!

How does a Trimet ad get tweeted? Somebody hires somebody to do it that's how!

Trimet Facebook

Henry Beasley

Dear Brothers and sisters:

    

While on the bus last week, I reread a sticker that said, “It is a felony under Oregon law to assault an operator while he or she is operating a public transit vehicle.”  It cites ORS 163.165 as the law that defines an assault as a felony.  BUT, let’s take a look at the law itself:  163.165¹

Assault in the third degree

High on Trimet gets TRIMETIZED!

Happy anniversary to me!

Its been 3 years this week that I stopped driving buses for Trimet. I actually didn't officially 'retire' until May but being a high seniority professional part time driver over there I was able to cobble together 2 months of time off till my official retirement.

It sure doesn't feel like 3 years, it feels like yesterday. Probably cause I am still so involved in blogging about Trimet.
I can't believe I made it 15 years there. I was actually an excellent bus driver technically speaking. 15 years without a single accident and the only complaints I had were phony complaints from my dispute with BikePortland. I enjoyed the riders, they gave the job meaning. The company, well the company turned out to be a piece of shit, abusing me in my last year of employment and then lying to me (and everyone else that retired since 1992)  about my retirement benefits. 
But I will admit that my 15 years spent at Trimet turned out to be one of the most profound experiences of my life so for that I thank the company.

Below the break is my most famous movie from my bus driving days at Trimet
HOW TO DRIVE AN OLD BUS, which was filmed by my old buddy Dave Stubblefield.