Deke's Note: Why am I so pissed in this post? Well, how would you like it if your management outsourced something you provide your co-workers every day? It's mind-numbing to consider what our management has done now. Any normal-thinking person would say, "what the hell?" but our transit agency and its controlled puppets have come up with another hare-brained scheme for you to consider. Don't be surprised if your response is even more profane than mine.
It's imperative to ensure your front line workers are given top priority when you renovate their workplace. You study, prepare in advance, and involve the local union to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. You move your professional drivers by using the same. We know and trust one another, are comfortable with our collective skills and share a common respect. It would only be logical to keep things in house, right? Not so, when your management operates at the speed of mute, incompetent and irresponsibly disrespectful to those who make the wheels roll.
When our "Bored" of Directors (a nickname I chose after being to a few of their meetings, in which they appear as wax statues with recording boxes in their collective larynx emanating predictable corporate soundbites that echo "Yeah, whatever he says") steamrolled the hiring of a new GM. Despite ATU 757's strenuous objections and questions of his competence upon the retirement of our former chief bumbler, it was a terrible insult. They "tabled" their decision to make it seem plausible they were considering other alternatives, but predictably came back a few days later and said, "Sure, we'll hire whoever Neil tells us to," regardless of New Wonder Boy's failed past-performance. Canada fired him, but oh well, eh? The Powers-That-Be said "DO IT" so "it" was done in spite of our objections that a more-thorough search be conducted. Our voices were paved over like Powell Garage operators' concerns are so trampled upon today.
Now the fruits of the "Bored's" lack of foresight is continuing the status quo of running roughshod over our union, making disrespect and disregard so commonplace it's as if we exist solely to give management something to do. Our opinions and concerns are evidently of no concern to them, given their bypassing union concerns in decision-making processes.
Citing "cost and manpower" shortages, management threw out some over-inflated figures, stating it would be too expensive to run a parking shuttle in-house. Bullshit. Take two or three Extra Board or Special Signup or Newbie Operators in three shifts, and give them a 30-footer. No extra cost involved whatsoever. We could easily absorb it into a regular shift, marking it up as a normal business expense at a fraction of the total construction costs.
Contracting to an Illinois-based company (non-union, no doubt) for big money reeks of collusion between upper management and these corporate mugs. I wonder who greased the skids for this contract, and who made out like a bandit while ATU 757 members were screwed like a fresh inmate. Hell, our "Bored" isn't accountable to anyone. They just nod blithely as every scheme our management concocts rolls off some corporate dork's tongue, and nothing we say or do matters one whit.
We're supposed to just sit back and nod, saying "Sure, Boss, we be good lil' boys and girls. Just don't whup us too hard if we sneeze at your meetings." Powell Operators are some of the most decorated, senior drivers we have. They drive in the toughest parts of town, and have truly seen it all. Instead of being given convenient parking with union drivers shuttling them safely to and from their temporary modular quarters, they're cast to the mercy of non-union goofballs from an out-of-state company that probably pays minimum wage to transport professional drivers to their workplace. It makes no sense what-so-fucking-ever.
That's what you get when you allow the State of Oregon to give public transit away to corporate America. It's time to take back OUR transit and send these bumbling bums packing. Transit is a blue-collar profession, and should be run by professionals who have driven a bus for a living. We'd save millions just by firing the hundreds of overpaid boneheads who have driven our once No. 1 rating downward towards the lowest-rated in the nation. We could do it better with less than half of the current management. We're not greedy, and we constantly bust our butts to safely deliver our precious cargo to their destinations every day of the year. No matter what Portland's weather throws at us, we do our job. Management prefers sunny days with nice cool breezes, yet we freeze our asses off in their mandated flimsy uniforms as they sit in front of a cozy fire in seven-figure showcase homes paid for from the sweat of our labor-seasoned asses.
Union professionals include workers from many industries. I've met many operators with Master's and Doctorate degrees in varied disciplines who are wise and thrifty enough to more than competently run the joint.
A transit agency is a service which doesn't need to turn a profit. It should command the respect of the public by showing a high regard for those who make it work. Ideally, it would shine a light on those who make it work while simultaneously teaching the public how to responsibly ride and treat its operators with a high standard of respect. Management now does its best to pander to a public that whines incessantly while refusing to acknowledge our transit system is one of the best in the world. Management allows a largely-dishonest customer complaint highway to run roughshod over its operators. Even mid-level management can make a false observation and have an operator suspended, because their word outranks the lowly front line operator. It's a despicably-rotten manner to treat Portland's safest road warriors.
Our local media is too lazy to masturbate. They report what they're told, and fail to do the work of real journalists of old. Doesn't it smell bad to outsource driving experienced drivers to an out-of-state corporate hog? It suffers one to wonder who greased the skids, and who benefits? Certainly not the union operators of ATU 757. Aren't you media lackeys even curious why our union wasn't included in this discussion, even though the transit agency says the opposite? It reeks, but still.... crickets in the local media. Yeah okay, just sit back and reap the benefits of marijuana dispensary advertising while others we work for a living.
Shame on you all. We deserve better, but we're not likely to get it. And yeah, I'm bitchy this post. If I don't say something, it doesn't get said except by Al Margulies or a few other operators who dare raise a fist in protest.
This fist is clenched in solidarity with operators world-wide who not only read this blog, but also face the dangerous paths upon which we make an honest, hard-earned living. I'm one of you, and I refuse to sit down and just take it. I'm mad as hell to be so disrespected on a daily basis, when all I'm doing is trying to keep a roof over my family's head while providing an economically-necessary service to my fellow Portlanders.
Deke is here for the operator, supervisor, dispatcher, maintenance personnel, station agent and every other union worker who toils under an incompetent iron hammer. Without us, there would be no transit. It would be ideal if management and "Boreds" everywhere actually came to that realization. Sadly, some people need instructions on how to open a simple box of cereal. It's very hard to fix stupid.
Oh, and fuck you Lars. Keep on paying your pseudo-taxis. They could kill you, but you'd be safe on my bus.
Like what Deke writes? Shooting from the hip in blazing style, he describes life as a city bus operator. Be sure to buy your loved ones a copy of "JUST DRIVE - Life in the Bus Lane," available on Amazon in print and ebook, and on Audible in audiobook format. A sure 5-star winner as described by ALL who have reviewed it. Get your copy NOW in time for Christmas!
I coundn't agree more! Reistance is still futile&tthese corporations will never let up until the heard thinning is complete.
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