Regular Portland public transit riders are likely familiar with TriMet’s Safety Response Team staff. Decked out in blue and yellow uniforms and unarmed, Safety Response Team members spend their days aboard the public transit system, expected to de-escalate tense situations, discourage illegal conduct, and provide resources for people in need.
Since launching the Safety Response Team (SRT) in 2021, TriMet has contracted with the private security company Portland Patrol, Inc. (PPI) to staff the team and manage the program’s day-to-day operations. But many SRT members, unhappy with PPI’s management, are calling on TriMet to rethink its relationship with the security company.
Dozens of current and former Safety Response Team staffers have told the Mercury their experience with the program was marked by low pay, inadequate benefits, and generally poor working conditions. Last fall, SRT employees announced their intent to unionize with SEIU Local 49, hoping a union would improve their working conditions and reduce high turnover rates. But eight months later, staff say their bosses at PPI have refused to recognize or even discuss the union. Now, SRT employees are taking a different approach.
TriMet’s most recent contract with PPI, signed in 2023, tasked the company with running the program for three years (with the possibility of two, one-year extensions). SRT staffers are asking TriMet to find a new company to contract with—one that will, as one employee put it, “live up to our team’s goals and respect our right to organize a union.”
“Ultimately, as the customers of this contract, it will be TriMet who determines whether or not our team is treated with respect by our employer,” Ben Hecko, who has worked with the SRT program for nearly four years, said at a TriMet board meeting on April 22. “I personally believe that the formation of this union is requisite to the continued success of our team.”
The union and staff feel confident a new company would hire current Safety Response Team employees.
In May, TriMet issued a new solicitation for its Safety Response Team and Customer Safety Officer services, both of which are currently managed by PPI. The decision to solicit new proposals from potential contractors was not necessarily in direct response to the SRT members’ demands. TriMet Public Information Officer Tyler Graf said the agency is “reviewing all our contracts in light of our current budget situation.”
Graf also told the Mercury that, because TriMet is a public body, it must remain neutral during “any effort by our employees or our subcontractors’ employees to unionize.”
“As we interpret the law, this neutrality extends to the awarding of contracts as well,” Graf said.
Still, SRT employees hope TriMet will opt for a different contractor. Many staff members have said they believe their working conditions have hindered the program’s success, and argue it would be in TriMet’s best interest to reevaluate the Safety Response Team’s management.
Staff members say one of the most unique features of the Safety Response Team is its diverse range of employees, many of whom have lived experience with mental health issues or addiction. Employees say those qualities serve them well in their jobs, helping them relate to and assist people in need. But SRT members say crisis response work takes a toll on everyone, especially people with a history of trauma, and they don’t think their current bosses provide enough support for vulnerable staffers.
“Our union matters because it provides greater support for the people who make this team succeed, expressing compassion in the face of vicarious trauma and human suffering is draining, and my teammates face these difficulties daily,” Hecko said at the April meeting. “A union will help our team to better support ourselves through greater accountability and more agency when working with our employer.”
In April, SEIU Local 49 filed an unfair labor practice complaint against PPI, alleging the company had retaliated against employees for organizing. The complaint alleges one employee was fired for supporting the union, in order to dissuade others from supporting the organizing effort.
PPI did not respond to the Mercury’s request for comment. But in an April 23 letter to the TriMet Board, PPI owner William Guidice addressed the allegations of workplace mismanagement and union busting. Guidice said his primary concern with the union is that any organizing process “be handled transparently and in a way that genuinely benefits employees.”
“My concern is not with union representation itself, but with ensuring that any process is conducted in a manner that is clear, complete, and fully understood by employees—particularly given the significance of the decisions involved and their long-term impact on wages, benefits, and working conditions,” Guidice said. “I am confident in my willingness to address concerns directly and to operate in a manner that aligns with both regulatory expectations and the values of TriMet as they always have.”
But, according to employees and representatives from SEIU, PPI has yet to meet with the union to discuss how to move forward.
TriMet is about to make significant cuts to transit service as a result of a severe budget shortfall. Those cuts will also apply to the Safety Response Team, which is expected to lose more than 20 staff members when the next contract takes effect, and even more budgeted positions that are not currently filled. SRT staff hope a new contractor will be able to help the program weather such changes.
“It’s just harder than ever for us to get around the system, with all the stress and uncertainty about whether or not we’re going to have jobs in a month from now,” SRT member Alex Williams told the Mercury. “We put a lot of support into the community and I hope that we can keep doing so.”
TriMet is scheduled to announce the results of its procurement process this week.
