Alison Segler has worked as a TriMet Safety Response Team staffer for the better part of the last five years. She is passionate about her job, which allows her to connect with people riding Portland’s public transit system, and provide resources to those in need. 

“I would like to express that it is my honor and my privilege to engage with my community, and be able to spread the love and the compassion that was so kindly also given to me,” Segler said in recent testimony at a TriMet board meeting. “I love my job, I love what I do, and I am so very grateful and proud.” 

TriMet has promoted the Safety Response Team (SRT) program as a model of a public safety program that doesn’t rely on armed police and security guards. The program sends unarmed workers onto Portland’s public transit system, expecting them to help de-escalate tense situations and increase an overall perception of safety on MAX trains and buses. 

Many of Segler’s colleagues have expressed similar sentiments about their jobs. But they also describe working in an environment that can be hostile at times, without receiving fair compensation or adequate support from their bosses at the private security company Portland Patrol, Inc., which TriMet contracts with to run the program. 

Current and former program staff have deeply-held concerns about the program’s ability to thrive under current conditions, which they say have perpetuated high worker turnover rates and resulted in vulnerable employees being taken advantage of. 

Related: The Promises and Perils of TriMet’s Safety Response Team

Now, employees are forming a union with SEIU Local 49, hoping union representation will help improve their working conditions and the program as a whole. They’re hoping TriMet leadership will back them in their union drive, which they believe will be a boon for the SRT program. 

Technically, SRT members are employed by Portland Patrol, Inc. (PPI), a private security company responsible for staffing the program. TriMet has contracted with PPI to run the Safety Response Team since its inception in 2021. This public-private partnership means TriMet is not directly responsible for the staff members’ working conditions. But the public transit agency likely has leverage to influence partners like PPI. TriMet and PPI’s most recent contract, signed in 2023, obligated roughly $64 million to the private security company over a period of three years. In the 2024-25 fiscal year, TriMet budgeted for 70 SRT positions, though the roles weren’t always filled. 

SRT staff tried to organize a union in the past, but several employees involved in that effort told the Mercury their attempts were thwarted by their managers at PPI. Employees say some people involved in the past union campaign were disciplined or even fired by managers who wanted to stifle labor organizing.

PPI Owner William Guidice has a different perspective. In a February email, Guicide told the Mercury he fully supported his workers organizing with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757, which represents TriMet bus drivers, MAX operators, and other agency staff.

“Everyone was very excited about this effort, and I vocally explained to the entire team how this would open new doors for PPI,” Guidice said. 

In the end, it was the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that denied SRT members the right to unionize with the transit workers’ union. In March 2024, an NLRB hearings officer determined SRT staff are classified as guards, and thus ineligible to join ATU, which cannot legally represent both guard and non-guard employees. Despite Guidice’s claims of supporting his staff’s organizing efforts, PPI argued against the union during the NLRB hearing, maintaining its employees were guards. 

“After presenting that decision to the team, I [told them] not to give up and that they could still self-unionized (sic) by filling out a form on the NLRB website,” Guidice told the Mercury. 

SRT employees are hoping they’ll have better chances with SEIU, a labor union which represents a diverse array of labor groups, from janitors and home health care providers, to airport workers, childcare workers, fast food workers, and others.

Guidice didn’t respond to the Mercury’s request for comment on the new union drive. But SRT staff say their managers have not been supportive of their effort to organize with SEIU. On November 7, staff sent Guidice a letter announcing their intent to unionize, telling him they are organizing to “ensure [their] concerns are heard.” 

“All workers on the transit system should have access to high quality, affordable health insurance, wages that keep up with the cost of living, Paid Time Off to allow us to take breaks, and a measure of dignity that comes with a say in your workplace,” the letter stated. “As union members, we will be better able to serve TriMet and the community.”

As of mid-December, workers say they haven’t received a response to their letter. Instead, they say, their bosses offered unexpected raises, threw them a pizza party, and even handed out cash prizes. SRT staff say they believe these gestures were intended to dissuade them from unionizing. But they remain committed to the effort. At the December 10 TriMet board meeting, several employees shared why they’re seeking union representation, and urged board members to support their cause. 

“What we want is a voice on the job, and for the company to agree to the same fair and neutral process other security employers across Portland have agreed to,” Longtime SRT staffer Ben Hecko said during public testimony to the board. “So far, the company hasn’t even met with us.”

Staff members say one of the things that makes the Safety Response Team unique is its focus on hiring people with “lived experience.” Many current and former employees have struggled with mental health issues or addiction, which they say allows them to relate to and help people they serve on the job. Current and former SRT employees say they appreciate the program’s emphasis on lived experience as a qualification, but they don’t think their bosses have provided enough support to vulnerable employees. 

If PPI agrees to come to the bargaining table with the SRT union, workers would seek more affordable healthcare benefits and paid time off, including mental health days, among other priorities. Staffers say these benefits would help all employees, but particularly those with prior mental health struggles. 

“We are told that our program values those with lived experience who can relate to the community. But when members continue to have lived experience as they work here, it no longer seems like a perk,” SRT staffer Devon Beaver said in testimony to the TriMet board. “It feels contradictory to be hired partially because you have depression—and then to be disciplined for experiencing depression symptoms.” 

Staffers say while TriMet may not directly employ SRT employees, public transit agency leaders should care about how its contractors are treating their workers. 

“TriMet should encourage its contractors to avoid disputes with their workers and in this case, to recognize the fair process we’re asking for,” Hecko said. “We want the same protections that the other members of TriMet enjoy.” 

Beaver said she believes unionization is in “all of our best interests,” with the power to “reduce turnover, improve management, and help keep our members happy and healthy at work.” 

“I hope that TriMet will make it clear that it expects its contractors to be able to work with their workers—that they should agree to a fair process for us to decide about union representation,” Beaver said. “We work on TriMet, our uniforms say TriMet, passengers know us as TriMet, and we should have the same rights as a TriMet employee even if our paystub says Portland Patrol.” 

TriMet Public Information Officer Tyler Graf told the Mercury labor law requires the agency to remain neutral on this, or any other union effort. But he said TriMet “respects that workers have a right to unionize,” recognizing the majority of TriMet employees are represented by ATU. 

Still, TriMet may be able to apply pressure behind the scenes. Workers and SEIU staff say they are counting on PPI management to voluntarily recognize the union, hoping to avoid a fight like the one that played out during the past organizing effort. TriMet’s attention could be part of what makes this process different. 

“[PPI] needs to know that TriMet, as a public agency, recognizes our right to form a union. Public agencies shouldn’t support contractors that won’t respect their workers’ choice to form a union,” Segler, one of the SRT employees, said at the board meeting. “With our union we can have a consistently higher caliber of passionate, skilled Safety Response Team members who stay as this is their forever job, a career, and a higher calling.”