I agree that Trimet needs to be more accountable with their budget, but ATU757's got a major set of balls to be PROTESTING frozen wages and having to start pitching in toward benefits. Most Portlanders would kill for those luxuries these days.

TriMet drivers wouldn't be in this mess if they could drive a bus worth a shit.

Honk if you want TriMet to get the hell out of our way.
Honk if you want to get through the traffic jams caused by construction for worthless TriMet projects
Honk if you have free healthcare
Honk if you want to pay in fares for less service
Honk if you support bloated, outdated wastes of union thuggery

Isn't honking in support of the union protest while driving a bus some sort of illegal or otherwise prohibited political activity while on-duty?

Seems like that's a big no-no.

can't you only honk if you're driving a car? And thus...not using Trimet?

Tri-Met's employee benefits are by far the highest in the country: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ss…

Fringe benefits are 152% of wages. Tri-Met employess pay nothing. Literally nothing for health care.

It's the employees ridiculous demands, not Tri-Met's expansion plans, that are causing a deficit.

This is what it's come to, the lowest common denominator, and no solidarity or sympathy from the dispossessed. The corporations have won.

Of course in this case 'corporation' means government agency.

Thanks for sharing the link, Suds Sister. That seems pretty wild.

Letem get out there and find a real job, I haven't had a raise in 2 years in fact this year I took a 50% pay cut so I could keep all my staff. These people in Government (buss drivers) don't need more, they need less, and we the people need more. Let em strike, let em loose there jobs, let em get in line at the mission for a meal. Liberal, independent, conservative skum. F-em!

So they're breaking the law by striking, and they're striking to keep their insanely cushy benefits.

Dissolve the union. Fire them. Hire real Americans. Problem solved.

TriMet doesn't need a driver's union. They have no specialized skill set that the union requires, such as certified electricians or plumbers. All they need is commercial driver's training and licensing which most able-bodied Americans can easily do.

Oregometry, you're right, they're illegally using the horn. If people complain you can bet the driver will get a talking to.

Spiffy, they weren't striking, they were just protesting (and it's in their contract that they can't strike).

That link is crap.
Trimet is #15 for total cost of a bus driver and #7 in terms of how much it pays on health care!
Don't believe the RIGHT WING THINK TANKS who's only concern is to break the unions!

Al's right. The only measure by which TriMet benefits are the highest in the country is in family health premiums. Individual premiums, total health benefits and total benefits are all further down the rankings.

That said, there aren't that many employers anywhere that still cover the full cost of medical benefits.

There's nothing inherently wrong with offering good medical instead of good wages, but when workers have no deductibles and tiny co-pays (as at TriMet) they're disconnected from their health care costs. It's like a subsidy for unhealthy living.

According to my School of Government classes you sell or long term lease the assets to a private company after declaring bankruptcy in a prepackage deal to get out from under these excessive employee costs. You need to form a public corp before you can also do this with the police and fire department.

Rosy, lucky for us TriMet is already a public corp! Either Metro takes it over or we start electing their board of directors from across the region.

This lack of accountability there has gotten extremely stale.