TriMet and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 reached tentative agreement Sept. 30 on a new union contract, but neither side is releasing terms of the deal to the public until members have had a chance to see the agreement and vote on it.
Details will be made available to Local 757 members at TriMet on Oct. 14. They will vote on it by mail, with ballots to be counted Oct. 24. The agreement covers about 2,000 workers and 1,200 retirees, though only active members vote on it. The TriMet Board is expected to vote on the agreement at its Oct. 22 meeting.
The four-year agreement comes nearly two years after the old union contract expired. That contract was the result of binding arbitration: The arbitrator had to choose one side’s final offer, and chose TriMet’s.
Before the tentative agreement was announced, it looked like this contract too was headed for binding arbitration. TriMet declared an impasse in negotiations on May 14, but the two sides continued to meet with the assistance of state mediator Janet Gillman.
If the deal is ratified, the two sides have also agreed to drop all pending unfair labor practice cases. Local 757 had challenged the arbitrator’s award on the grounds that elements of TriMet’s final offer were unlawful.
If approved, the new agreement would be retroactive to Dec. 1, 2012, and would run through Nov. 30, 2016. The two sides got off to a late start negotiating a legal dispute over whether bargaining should be open to the public, and made slow progress once face-to-face bargaining began in September 2013.
