So, Labor is currently in contract negotiations with Management. Well, Labor is trying to negotiate. Management? They seem to be throwing a temper tantrum, you know the type, one of those incredible, arms and legs flailing, screaming, crocodile tears streaming, snot running, red-faced, complete and total meltdowns that every parent of every toddler absolutely dreads will happen at the exact wrong moment in public. In other words, Management has decided that they want to take all the toys and then give themselves even bigger pay raises because they now have all the toys and the Board will approve because, well, that side had no toys, so the side with all the toys obviously deserves pay raises for having all the toys. right?
It has come to my attention that there are certain members of Labor who see advantage to repeat Management’s talking points. One very important point I want to stress is that every part of Labor needs to support every other part of Labor. I gave a shout-out to my coworkers in Labor in my last couple of TriMet diaries, but I’d like to reiterate the importance that we all play on the same team. It does no good to help Management undermine the entirety of Labor for potential individual gain.
To my coworkers who support Management’s talking points and then share them with me: stuff it. I do not want to hear them, again, from my own coworkers. I know them already and unless you actually want to have a substantive discussion about why Management’s talking points are inconsistent and unhelpful, do not tell me that you need me to believe exactly what you believe about the beneficence of Management’s goals. Do not forget Management’s endgame is to break the union. Without the union, Labor means less than nothing and your job will be outsourced to a cheaper worker. Your position is at risk no matter what Management tells you: you are Labor and as Labor, you are expendable.
The current people in upper and middle management have no experience on the labor side of public transportation. They do not understand how their actions and policies directly affect our ability to do our work: they are making these talking points to assuage some part of their own egos. What’s the most important thing of driving a bus? Leave your ego at home. It’ll be there when you get home, safe and sound and waiting for you.
Another thing I have noticed is the erosion of cooperation within my union family. Please, remember that every operator relies on every mechanic, every service worker, every station agent, every road and rail supervisor because operating a bus or a train is, by necessity, a team effort. Without the fantastic support team, bus and train operators would not be able to do our jobs. And, you would not have the jobs you have without operators going out there to serve the needs of public transportation. We all rely on each other to go out there and work and come home safe to our families.
I cannot stress enough the importance to stick together. Management has decided that the best way to set up this fight is to make it adversarial. They want us to be fighting among ourselves rather than unified against what they are trying to accomplish. They want divisions between us to be exaggerated so that we do not support one another and we become vulnerable. They want to use Labor against Labor, so why are you helping Management by spewing Management’s talking points?
I had a recent interaction with a coworker, let’s call her Karen. I stated the difficulties I was having with the barriers in some of the buses. Rather than listen to anything I wanted to share, Karen jumped in and told me that, “One day, that barrier will keep you from being stabbed.” I retorted that until that day came, I’d rather not have the barrier. She said something else about how many bad people there were out there and I responded that the bad people made up a minority of the people we interact with on a daily basis. She then just went back to the stance that Management wants us to swallow which is that Management knows how to drive bus and the people who actually drive bus don’t know how to do their jobs. When I told her this was what I heard about what she said, she stormed off.
I wanted to remind her that without Labor, she and management would not have jobs. I also wanted to remind her position was to represent each and every member of the union. Unfortunately, she stormed off without fully engaging in an exchange of ideas as she, obviously, is superior to those she, presumeable, represents.
All this to say, even during a global pandemic, TriMet management is merely a reflection of our national representation. We deserve so much better and so much more.