More than 80% of workers at TriMet are unionized — but not the safety crews who patrol TriMet stations, buses, and light rail to offer resources to passengers who may be in crisis.
The safety workers want to change that. In November, Safety Response Team workers delivered a request for voluntary recognition to Portland Patrol, Inc., the security company that employs them and contracts with TriMet.
Workers and the union they want to join, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 49, said Portland Patrol has refused to engage with the union effort, offering a pizza party and raises for some employees while delaying and providing non-answers to the union’s request for recognition. Portland Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.
At least 64 of about 80 current workers have signed union authorization cards, Local 49 said.
The Safety Response Team was formed in 2021 as a way to respond to negative behavior on the Portland area’s public transit system without involving police. Workers outfitted in blue and yellow vests carry backpacks filled with granola bars, water bottles, pamphlets about mental health and addiction services, first aid kits, the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone, and radios to communicate with the security operations center if they aren’t able to deter behavior that poses a public safety risk.
Donovan Roudabush, a member of the Safety Response Team, said workers want sustainable, living-wage jobs “like every other group at TriMet.” Four out of five TriMet employees are represented by Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757.
Most contractors involved in TriMet’s daily operations are also unionized, including around 550 operators for TriMet’s LIFT paratransit service, who are employed by Transdev and represented by Local 757, and around 224 unarmed transit security officers employed by Allied Universal and represented by SEIU Local 49. Customer safety officers, another group of about 110 Portland Patrol workers who patrol the TriMet system, aren’t unionized and aren’t part of Local 49’s current campaign. Customer safety officers are more of a traditional security team, while the Safety Response Team “emphasizes connection to services, visibility, connection and support,” Local 49 spokesperson Alan Dubinsky said.
Safety Response Team workers took their campaign to the TriMet board meeting in December, first reported by the Mercury.
“We simply want the fair, neutral process that an employee of TriMet could experience when forming their union. It’s the same process that other contracted security officers who are already members of SEIU Local 49 have used to win their union,” Safety Response Team member Ben Hecko told the board.
“We work on TriMet, our uniforms say TriMet, passengers know us as TriMet, and we should have the same rights as TriMet employees — even if our pay stub says Portland Patrol,” worker Devon Beaver said.
“It would not be appropriate for us to take a position on unionization of that workforce,” TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr. told the board in December.
SEIU Local 49 organizer Scott Cheesewright said Desue’s response wasn’t good enough. “We think they should take a stand to support the folks who support riders on their system,” Cheesewright said.
“In this city, when most people are in their homes safe, we are out connecting with some of our community’s most vulnerable populations,” Ali Segler told TriMet’s board, describing the team being dispatched to possible overdoses at a MAX station in the middle of a rainy night, assisting an elderly person in a wheelchair to a cooling center on a 100 degree day, and writing a referral and crafting a plan with a person who finally decides they’re ready for drug detox.
On a daily basis, Safety Response Team workers encounter people in the throes of addiction, mental illness, or a personal crisis.
Safety Response Team workers “deserve sustainable health care, livable wages, accrued paid time off and sick time. We deserve coworkers who are competitively selected for their talents and capabilities. We deserve to not live in fear of a retaliatory and unsafe work environment and constant hiring and firing,” Segler said.
Wages start around $22 to $23 per hour.
Legal complication
When employers refuse to voluntarily recognize a unionization campaign, workers typically file with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for an election. But because of a rarely discussed subsection of federal labor law, filing with the NLRB likely isn’t a viable option for the Safety Response Team.
Under the National Labor Relations Act, the NLRB can’t certify a union as the representative of guards if the union also represents non-guards.
That’s why a previous Safety Response Team union campaign failed.
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757, the union representing most TriMet workers, filed to represent the Safety Response Team workers in 2023. Portland Patrol argued that the workers were guards. The NLRB regional director agreed and tossed ATU Local 757’s election petition.
“There are too many ways for employers to play games and use legal maneuvers to avoid dealing directly with workers and so broadly, we fight for a simple, direct recognition process and fair process,” Cheesewright said.
SEIU Local 49 also represents guards and non-guards. The union represents more than 800 security officers and more than 14,000 other building services and health care workers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Local 49 has received voluntary recognition through a card check process at all the security companies where the union represents workers.
