Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 employed and retired from TriMet held an informational picket at Portland State University Nov. 10, site of a TriMet board of directors meeting.
ATU is trying to raise public awareness of a contract dispute it has with the transit agency, as well as TriMet’s failure to include the union in dealing with 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.
“While the contract dispute is currently main stage, there are other serious issues that TriMet is failing to adequately address,” said ATU President Jon Hunt. TriMet created a task force to investigate public concerns over safety issues plaguing the transit agency, but ATU claims it was left out of that process. “We believe that the recent report on safety by the task force is a whitewash and fails to disclose major safety problems at TriMet,” Hunt said.
