Are TriMet managers too busy to bargain with ATU?
No word from TriMet
board as labor battle
drags on
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
TriMet’s May 22 board meeting be-
gan with praise for workers. Neil Mc-
Farlane, general manager of a transit
agency that’s deep into a public battle
with its union, told the board nothing
gives him greater pleasure than present-
ing the awards for Bus Operator of the
Year, Light Rail Operator of the Year,
and Part-Time Operator of the Year.
The three model workers were
called forward. McFarlane and board
members thanked them for their service
and commended them for setting a stan-
dard. Did the honorees want to say a
few words? We’ll never know. Willie
Jack, Ivan Semenyuk, and Terrie Sweet
(chosen by their co-workers) were not
invited to speak. But Sweet, the Part-
time Operator of the Year, stayed to ob-
serve the board meeting, and as it drew
to a close, was approached by this re-
porter.
“What would I have said? Well, he
has said you’ve got to pay to keep good
people,” Sweet said, referring to Mc-
Farlane’s defense of last year’s man-
agement pay increases. “But we are
PAGE 2
be unavailable. It appears
good people, and we
TriMet manager schedules
haven’t had a merit in-
got really tight just as the
crease since 1984.”
union agreed to begin bar-
It’s no wonder the
gaining. There were vaca-
TriMet brass didn’t in-
tions, and time-consuming
vite her to speak. But
legal matters to attend to,
it’s not clear TriMet is
and other unspecified
eager to hear from her
schedule conflicts. The
union either — judging
May dates were unavail-
from back-and-forth
able due to scheduled sur-
correspondence be-
gical procedures and other
tween Amalgamated
short-notice conflicts,
Transit Union Local
Stedman wrote. As for
757 President Bruce
T ERRIE S WEET
June,
Stedman wrote,
Hansen and Randy
Part-Time Operator
Shelly
Lomax,
executive
Stedman, TriMet’s ex-
of the Year at TriMet
director of operations,
ecutive director of labor
relations and human resources. The let- needs to be there, and she’ll be entirely
ters are full of name-calling and provo- unavailable from June 3 to June 27 due
cation, and not from the union side. to a court case. And in July, federal trial
[Judge for yourself at nwlaborpress. dates and long-standing travel plans
preclude other dates, except for July 2
org/thetrimetletters.pdf]
Since November, TriMet has ac- and 3.
The union responded that July 2 and
cused Local 757 of “delaying tactics”
for refusing to bargain behind closed 3 don’t work, and proposed eight other
doors while a legal dispute was pend- dates in July, and eight in August.
ing over whether talks would be open TriMet countered with 28 dates in Au-
to the public. But the union changed gust and September.
So they may meet … in August.
tack in April, and on April 29, Local
Back at the May 22 board meeting,
757 President Hansen proposed six
there was no sign that board members
dates in May and 10 dates in June.
A week later, Stedman agreed to a are perturbed by TriMet’s never-ending
single meeting seven weeks out (June bad press. If anything, they seemed to
24). And two days after that, Stedman back up the general manager.
KOIN-TV had confronted McFar-
followed up to say even that date would
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
lane May 15 and 16 over lavish man-
agement salaries — and raises that were
buried in a $20 million “contingency
fund” in last year’s budget. TriMet has
70 managers who make over $100,000
a year, KOIN’s Jeff Gianola reported.
At the board meeting, member Craig
Prosser seemed to respond to that. A
committee had reviewed nonunion
wages, he said, and found them to be
“within the range of comparability” to
other cities. McFarlane makes $221,450
a year. Lomax makes $180,000. Sted-
man and TriMet general counsel Jana
Toran make $175,000.
TriMet was also in the news May 20
after a federal judge chastised TriMet
and fined the agency $5,000 for with-
holding internal emails from attorneys
in a lawsuit on behalf of two pedestri-
ans killed by a bus in 2010. Toran, the
attorney, told the board it was a misun-
derstanding: TriMet is unable to search
for electronic files. Plus, there were
only 600 pages relevant to the case, and
it would take 34 days for TriMet to pro-
vide them. The board seemed to accept
that explanation, and asked no ques-
tions.
But members of the public held forth
for over an hour in three-minute chunks,
most of them pushing for the board to
extend transfer times. One man played a
recording of a flushing toilet as he
placed dollar bills in a paper “toilet” —
to lampoon TriMet’s investment in the
little-used WES commuter rail service.
The board approved a budget that re-
stores some past service cuts, thanks to
increased payroll tax revenue. But there
was no reduction in fares, which are
some of the highest in the nation. Regu-
lar adult tickets are now $2.50. And June
marks one year since TriMet ended free
service in the downtown area, for which
Portland was once famous.
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JUNE 7, 2013