TriMet uses its public e-mail list to score points against union
A government agency e-
mails the public to say its
employee compensation
is out-of-line
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
TriMet, the Portland-area public transit district,
has a well-developed Internet presence: Online
users can plan trips, see when buses are coming,
and sign up for e-mail updates.
But now it seems the agency is using its public
e-mail list to bash its union — Amalgamated
Transit Union Local 757. A Dec. 15 e-mail, sent to
over 20,000 subscribing members of the public,
drew readers in with its subject line: “Budget Dis-
cussion Guide now online – we want your feed-
back!”
“Tough budget choices are ahead,” explained
the unsigned email from TriMet, “and we want to
know what’s most important to you when it comes
to service on the street and the price you pay to
ride.”
It sounds like a public agency seeking public
input, right? But click through, and TriMet ex-
plains that the projected $12-17 million budget
shortfall is brought on by lower payroll revenues,
likely federal funding cuts … and because “nego-
tiations with the transit union over health care ben-
efits and other cost-cutting measures are at an im-
passe.”
“The current trend in the cost of wages and
benefits for represented (union) employees is un-
sustainable,” TriMet declares. “A recent Employ-
ment Relations Board decision removed certain
cost-saving proposals from our final labor con-
tract offer, so some measures we were hoping to
implement—such as bringing wage and health
care costs under control—likely will have to wait
for a future negotiation.”
TriMet doesn’t explain, but the Employment
Relations Board (ERB) is a state agency that ad-
ministers Oregon’s public employee collective
bargaining law. In September, ERB determined
that TriMet broke state labor law — when it sent
a different “final offer” to arbitration than the real
final offer it had made to the union in bargaining.
That contract is heading for binding arbitration,
which TriMet calls “a forum in which it is ex-
tremely difficult to make significant changes no
matter how out-of-line union wages and benefits
are.”
To sum up: TriMet asks for public input on
service cuts and fare increases, and then uses that
as an opportunity to tell the public its own union
employees’ wages and benefits are “unsustain-
able,” out of control, and “out-of-line.”
There’s more. Click on “Tell us what you
think,” and that leads to “Common Questions”
like “Why not just cut pay and benefits for em-
ployees like everyone else has?” The answer, says
TriMet, is that 87 percent of its employees are in
the union, and TriMet can’t unilaterally change
their wages and benefits. “Union leadership has
refused to consider reasonable changes to wage
increases and benefits that would bring them more
in line with other transit/government workers,”
TriMet continues. “ATU has also been successful
in its legal maneuvers to delay or exclude arbitra-
tion on TriMet’s cost-saving wage and benefit pro-
posals.”
TriMet spokesperson Mary Fetch told the La-
bor Press that the e-mail had over 800 responses in
the first day. She offered no support for the con-
tention that TriMet wages are out of line, but said
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health benefits — which TriMet provides for
union members and their dependents — cost
$16,000 a year.
The budget discussion will continue with pub-
lic meetings in February.
TriMet operates bus and light rail service in
Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington coun-
ties. It’s funded by fares and local payroll taxes,
and is governed by a seven-member board ap-
pointed by the governor.
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