PORTLAND, Ore. -- Members of the local transit union were scheduled to picket at Portland State University's Smith Memorial Student Union Building Wednesday morning.
"Both active and retired employees of TriMet, who are members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, will conduct informational picketing," reports a press notification from union activists.
The picketing was scheduled at the same time as TriMet's Board of Directors were scheduled to meet at PSU.
"The Union wants to raise public awareness of the current contract dispute between TriMet and the Union, TriMet’s failure to include the Union in dealing with serious safety concerns raised by employees, and why a shortage of drivers has caused huge amounts of overtime in order to keep service on the streets," the press statement continues.
In a prepared statement the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 union, Jonathan Hunt, said: “While the contact dispute is currently main stage, there are other serious issues that TriMet is failing to adequately address. These concern major safety issues and operator overtime.”
The move comes after TriMet created a task force to investigate public concerns over safety issues. However, union officials say they have been left out of the process.
“We believe that the recent report on safety by the task force is a whitewash," said Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 Union President Jonathan Hunt in a prepared statement, "and fails to disclose major safety problems at TriMet."
Union officials say another issue in contention is salaries of some bus drivers at TriMet. This comes after a recent media report that at least one driver is making more than $100,000 a year.
“Because TriMet has not hired bus operators in the past year, the only way TriMet can get service on the street is to rely on operators to work overtime," Hunt said. "TriMet’s failure to defend drivers against these unwarranted and one-sided attacks is just another example of their lack of transparency in dealing with the public.”
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