KEEP THE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM!

Our Maintenance Apprenticeship Program is invaluable. It should not only remain, but be strengthened and carried forward forevermore. Common sense and a belief that "hard work should be rewarded" reins supreme in America's working class.

Why our management is dead-set against this program defies logic. For decades, those who enter our Maintenance Department have been given the expectation of rising up through the ranks to attain Journeyman-level status via hard work and dedication. It's vastly-different than management's rise through the non-union levels of disastrous decision-making that have thrown Portland's transit system into a downward spiral to mediocrity the past decade. Why isn't management prone to the apprenticeship program it now actively seeks to end? So many of my brothers and sisters who take great care of our vehicles entered their employment with the promise of upward mobility into careers that would entail thousands of dollars of trade school or collegiate debt to attain otherwise.

I have the greatest respect for the hundreds of our hard-working fellows who clean, fuel, maintain and repair each bus when it returns from a 20-hour journey upon Portland's unforgiving streets. They have families to feed, rent to pay, dreams to attain. Why should they be held down, when management affords over-generous raises to our GM, who was heartily-opposed when the "Bored of Directors" hired him? They work much harder than Dougie does. He has no clue what we all go through, whether it be Operators, Maintenance staff, Road Supes, Trainers or Station Agents. If he had any wisdom regarding what we all actually do every day in service, perhaps he would be qualified for the position he has been gifted. Mr. Kelsey has never driven a bus in service. He was fired from his last job in Canada, but evidently Portland transit rewards failure. This simple fact is a slap in the face to the thousands of operations-level transit workers who daily toil to provide exemplary service to our fellow Portlanders.

How can it be? To attain the level of a top-notch bus mechanic, one must live and breathe diesel fumes for years, become intimately-acquainted with each piece of a bus or rail vehicle. Our GM likely has no idea how to turn a bus correctly around narrow corners, or how a light rail vehicle approaches each stop, or what screws must be loosened to replace a faulty part. He hasn't been derided by passengers because he's late to their connection, or even come close to being attacked as he simply did his job. To preside over a contract negotiation, giving his negotiators freedom to advocate the elimination of a time-honored and proven program that has raised many to journey-level salaries without fear of student loan debt and near-homelessness, Doug is failing not only his employees but our entire beloved metropolis.

Why am I so jaded against upper management, or "leadership" as non-union employees are accustomed to referring to them? Because they haven't done my job, or that of our Maintenance brothers and sisters who signed on with the hopes of a brighter tomorrow. They're corporate failures masquerading as "management professionals" who know little of the jobs done by those they "manage". Our middle-management division has a scattering of former operators, but we've seen an influx of assistant managers who have never held a wheel larger than a minivan in their hands. I'm "jaded" all right. And pissed off too, as anyone who reads this ought to be. The dream of "Middle Class America" rests upon the minds who currently negotiate the next contract we'll soon vote upon. If said contract includes this dastardly plan to forever abolish the Apprentice Program for Maintenance, rest assured my vote will be a resounding "NO!"

When I roll into the Spotter's Shack after a long day of driving my run, I will give that man or woman, being the final one who boards my ride, my utmost respect. Their job is not any less strenuous than mine. On a Saturday night as I set the parking brake, I nod to the yard worker who will take my bus from there. They service literally hundreds of buses each night. It's my nod to them that requires I pick up leftover trash and close all windows before I relinquish control of The Beast to them. Any trash in my Operator's compartment is tossed into the trash can. Every electrical accessory is turned off, the engine left running. Anything I can do to make Maintenance personnel's job a bit easier is a task I perform out of true respect.

When it snows here, which is rare but always a winter eve's possibility, I see my fellow Maintenance brothers and sisters with their backs in the snowy cold, installing chains upon the duals of our vehicles. They rescue me whenever I encounter a mechanical problem, and are kind and professional while doing so. Their respect for me is rewarded by my reciprocal admiration for what they do. And that's how it has been for 100 years here in Portland.

While I ready my questions for our brothers and sisters in the Maintenance Division of Operations in Portland's transit agency, I want them to know I have the utmost respect for what they do for us all every moment we're in service. Without them, we would not be able to roll in expertly-maintained vehicles. If I notice a problem with any vehicle, I'm fastidious in my description of the malfunction. If a battery-reset doesn't resolve the problem, I make note of that too. We are blessed to have some of the finest mechanics in the world, and I cannot ever put into words how much respect and awe I have of their talents.

Given this, it is not without mention of their upward mobility that I honor their service. Many of today's top-notch mechanics began their transit journey taking buses off the lot and running them through the myriad of tasks each bus or light rail vehicle undergoes after a day of service. I could never do their job, nor do I possess the mechanical ability to even begin to undertake the upward journey many of them struggled through to attain their current status as the BEST mechanics in the world. I tip my hat to you all, and thank you heartily for your Herculean efforts so many of my fellows may fail to acknowledge.

While the working class remains mired in the difficulties of survival far below the edicts handed down from corporate America which controls our economy, it remains a point of survival that we fight for every upward inch of mobility we can. We can no longer afford to wait for politicians to hear our pleas. At this point, all working-class Americans are fighting just to pay the bills amidst the rise of insurance premiums and assaults upon Social Security, Medicare and other retirement goals we have paid into our entire working lives. To eliminate a promising career opportunity is not only cruel, but fiscally-irresponsible. Offering jobs to those who haven't risen through the ranks like my ATU757 fellows is a slap in the face to us all.

So my wish for this contract, other than obtaining better benefits than contracts past for myself and others who roll the wheels as I do: KEEP the Maintenance Apprentice Program. Strengthen it, give us all generous raises to offset the tripling of medical insurance premiums, and promise to do the right thing by us all.