Both ATU and TriMet appear to be claiming victory in in the recent ruling by the Oregon Employee relations board.
It would appear that TriMet does indeed get the contract imposed by the arbitrator (good news), but cannot collect retroactive health-care contributions from employees (bad news) and must refund some contributions (more bad news).
TriMet’s statement does not say what the budget impact of the $10M+ in forgone employee health care contributions will be, but from prior statements by the General Manager I would infer that it will not require service cut backs this year, but could impact future years.
11 responses to “TriMet Takes $10 Million Hit from ERB, Claims Victory”
but cannot collect retroactive health-care contributions from employees (bad news)
~~~>That’s bad news to you? That a company can not reach back into the past and demand repayment for health insurance already provided? You see that as bad news? WOW
must refund some contributions (more bad news).
~~>Sheesh, if the masters of Trimet hadn’t broken the law they would not have to refund that huh? So its bad news that they couldn’t get away with breaking the law? WOW!
but from prior statements by the General Manager
~~~>You gotta be kidding, the man has over and over again withheld and distorted facts about everything involving Trimet finances.
What is there left to say? Crush the blue collar employees give the executives lavish salaries and pensions.
It’s AMERIKA!
Al, I was characterizing the news from TriMet’s point of view given the way their press release was framed and the apparent contradiction between “winning” and a $10M+ financial reversal. Note the irony in the title.
Ok I always seem to overreact ! I get too emotional about this stuff I guess
This sets the baseline for future negotiations, so from TriMet’s point of view it’s a one-time charge (and one that I don’t think was unexpected–particularly the notion that TriMet would be permitted to bill current and former employees for past health insurance premiums) but a long-term advantage.
Of course, the contract negotiation that TriMet won was for a term that expired last November–operators are once again working without a contract. Under the law, the terms of the prior agreement (just upheld) still apply, but if and when a new agreement is reached (or an arbitration concluded) it will be potentially retroactive to November 2012.
Quoting Neil:
And that brings up an interesting point: Even though the old contract was supposedly for three years, most of the contract period was actually paid to drivers with some terms of the (more favorable to them) prior contract; TriMet was not able to win retroactive clawback of the difference.
What, though, if the union wins next time around? Will it demand retroactive payment of any difference in this case? Would TriMet insist that since it didn’t get a clawback, it shouldn’t have to pay anything retroactively? And if it turns out that labor can demand clawbacks but management cannot (after all, it’s a lot easier for TriMet to send out a whole bunch of checks than send out a whole bunch of bills), might this make it advantageous for one side to draw out the negotiations as long as it can?
At any rate, TriMet has long been publicly stating that the current contract is a step in the right direction, but the
drivers are still overpaidbenefits that TriMet has are “just not sustainable. The math doesn’t work”.“might this make it advantageous for one side to draw out the negotiations as long as it can?”
Looking at the progress of current negotiations it sure looks like one side sees it that way.
The math sure doesn’t work when your spending like a drunken sailor on a rare shore leave which is what Trimet is doing.
While the mainstream media has successfully pushed all the attention onto the labor contract nobody is bothering to look at all the things the fox (mcfarlane) is doing to the hen house.
That man has been on a hiring binge for years now, using public funds to hand out raises to all his high priced cronies and there is no sign any of that will stop anytime soon.
All of his actions are that of a man leading an agency wallowing in money, but he and his high priced front man (steadman) continue to whine about the cost of his employees.
It’s a giant scam choreographed by the global elite that is intent of destroying livable wage jobs with decent benefits so they (the global elite) can have more for themselves.
The sad thing is they are getting totally aware with their scam since they have mainstream media on their side to endlessly pump their propaganda.
The pubic whines about blue collar workers that have health insurance, nobody whines that there are 176 six figure executives at Trimet reaping fortunes off the public dime.
It’s ok for those people to get rich but its not ok for blue collar workers to have decent health insurance.
As I said, its AMERIKA!
Al: did any of those 176 executives start out as union employees? I’m trying to figure out if I should be happy that there is upward mobility. I hate the race to the bottom that we’re running in this country but I also want to let people have opportunities so I have a hard time begrudging anyone who is doing well (except the true 1%).
“The pubic whines about blue collar workers that have health insurance, nobody whines that there are 176 six figure executives at Trimet reaping fortunes off the public dime.”
I would whine about the six figure appointees at NultcoKremlin. Like Sonia Manhas.
Single payer. Let’s make health insurance a non-issue.
Vermont passed single-payer health care. Oregon can do it.
Al: did any of those 176 executives start out as union employees
~~~>The only one I know of is Lomax.
The point i am trying to make with the 176 six figure execs is that all of them get paid to basically not provide anything to the public. Nobody should be making fortunes off public transit. Fred Hansen’s 16k/mo pension is pornographic.
And yes SINGLE PAYER FOR ALL AMEN
I’m sure that they provide SOME value to the public, but your point is taken. Thanks!
Agreed! Single payer solves many, many problems.