Deke SUPPORTS Our Maintenance Staff!

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Road Mechanics are worth their weight in priceless metal because they have come up through the ranks of hard-working apprenticeship. They learn by fueling and cleaning buses, working their way up to become the shop- and road-worthy roaming mechanics who come to our rescue when our rides just won't roll any more without their knowledge, skill and years of experience. My hat is off to my brothers and sisters who have proved their worth with the hopes of a better tomorrow. 
Deke's Note: I just read ATU 757 President Shirley Block's editorial in this month's edition of the Northwest Labor Press. She describes Portland transit's contract negotiations as Laird Cusack (the management's current negotiator who cannot even be found in management's current flow chart, which also lists Patrick Preusser, former Executive Director of Transportation whose contract was not extended past January 1, 2020) presented us with a "shit show" of disrespect. Transit management is reportedly in favor of dismantling all of labor's decades-long victories. Even so, management has the gall to program dead-heading buses with messages imploring people to apply to become transit workers. Given management's utter disrespect of union workers, why would any self-respecting laborer stoop so low as to even consider it?

 If management ever wanted to truly show transit workers the ultimate in disrespect, this contract negotiation takes the prize. Evidently, those who do the back-breaking, health-robbing work of transit, mean zero to our management. If the public had its right to view our negotiations (prohibited by management), it would surely rise up in indignation against Corporata's takeover of our inexpensive ride around town. Given our local media's tendency to take the side of management whenever transit is highlighted, your transit operator's voice is rarely heard in opposition. This is MY plea to the public to WAKE UP! We give you inexpensive rides wherever you need to go, yet our management believes we're not valued members of the local economy. Fuck that, we TAKE PORTLAND TO WORK! 

 Here is my angry reply to Portland's "alternative media", which seems to have been bought and paid for by those who "value" yet demean our very existence in lieu of Portland Transit's corporate-supported automated future. Yeah, Willamette Week, you're worthless. Hopefully, you take this writer's note to heart and strive to report on issues which affect not only transit operators, but also those who SUPPORT and depend upon US to get them where they need to be every minute of our service day. EVERY day of EVERY year, no matter what weather we operate in.

 Yeah. You're fucking welcome.




Editor,

Deke N. Blue is a Portland transit blogger. You've definitely heard of the blog FromTheDriverSide, but you have artfully ignored it since its inception in 2013. I describe myself as "a writer who drives a bus for a living".

FromTheDriverSide is read around the world by transit workers, passengers and other people. The fact the Willamette Week has ignored this blog for nearly seven years is a testament to its "la la la" ignoring my 400,000+ hits, 5-star-rated book 'JUST DRIVE - Life in the Bus Lane' and constant attempts to inspire your publication to take notice of my words.

We are currently in a fierce battle with TriMet as contract negotiations dominate our lives. It wants to eliminate the Maintenance Apprentice Program, take away numerous benefits, yet it offers no good reasons. Management wants to take away years of victories for the working class while offering nothing in return to YOUR NEIGHBORS, who make the wheels of transit roll. No matter what elements Mother Nature throws at Portland, its transit operators report to work and battle the elements to get its fellow Portlanders to their destinations. Little thanks we get, especially from our local media. If something bad happens regarding transit, you're one of many media outlets who pounce on us for some ill-begotten notion of "failure", yet our daily toils are forgotten within your weekly notes of hipster eateries and brew pubs. Transit workers are the silent heroes of Portland's economy, and we're tired of your ignorance to our plight of assaults, contract battles and constant heroics on the deadly streets you're supposed to highlight yet fail to even mention.

Here, Deke offers his opinion in a blog he's written since he was a rookie transit operator. Once again, you can choose to ignore "the real side" of the story, or actually consider it. My money is on your ignoring the blog, as usual, like you did the book. "We're gonna pass," your book reviewer said when provided a copy two years ago. Pretty lame response for a news outlet that considers itself as "alternative media". If it doesn't smell like pot or favor the homeless, your eyes roll and gloss over. Perhaps if you stopped smoking the weed you grow on your roof you might actually find some journalistic excellence.


Your recent cover article entitled "What Bus Riders Want" was woefully lacking in substance and alternate opinions. In other words, it was a one-sided, slanted piece of fluff. Unfortunately, that's what Portland has come to expect from your newspaper: utter juvenile nonsense. You offer nothing which would even be considered Pulitzer-worthy. Perhaps you're concerned about offending your advertisers when you should be pursuing wide-ranging opinions. Not once did this reporter mention the views of the average transit operator. Maybe because local transit muzzles you from asking us what we think. Any journalist taught the age-old mantra of the trade (who, what, where, when and why) would have considered an alternate view while writing their story; yours failed to consider several of these standards.

Get off your asses, WWeekly. Go back to journalism school. Maybe then you'll learn to help the city decipher how to properly assist the homeless rather than propping up the burgeoning cloud of pot smoke which enfeebles the millions of minds we live with (and work among). Above all, consider ALL angles of a story before you haphazardly publish such lazy literary bullshit.

Here's my latest few posts, which readers across the globe read with interest each week while you ignore it. Yeah, you'll attempt to strike back with your customary assault upon my supposed "angry bus driver" posts, but they're not fooling anyone. It's time you decide to STAND with the working middle class rather than insulting it with inane, inefficient and sordidly one-sided attempts at centuries-old classy journalism.

I urge you to consider my point of view: that of a committed, passionate advocate for those seldom heard from: a blue-collar transit bus operator. If you continue to ignore me, it proves you are just another paid-for advocate for Corporata.



Sincerely,

Deke N. Blue
Portland Transit Blogger

P.S. About 3,000 local transit workers are watching for your reply. Thousands more across the US, Canada, Ireland, UK, Australia, Spain, and many other places wonder if you're actually "journalists" or corporate dweebs like those who run transit today. Be careful in your response; we're not the 'silent type'. Especially Portland Transit Operators... we are routinely disappointed by your feeble attempts at reporting the dwindling pulse of the working class.




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