Dear Sam #5: DIRTY POOL

This guy held up 10+ fare-paying passengers by refusing to exit 
 in his likely drug-induced ridiculousness. 

Deke's Note: Beware, and hold to those stanchions. I'm HELLA PISSED. 

Dear Sam,

How dare you?!? How long have you courted our local ATU757's attorney? It took a lot of balls to hire OUR lawyer. I gotta hand it to you, incredibly daring and logistical move. Did you offer him extra money to leave our local and work for transit? His salary was dutifully paid by US. Super sneaky move, so downright underhanded.

We have known all along you only care about "your accomplishments". The FX2, what a joke, another millions spent on a boondoggle for shuttling even less people out of downtown to Gresham. Bullshitty boondoggle plans about a new MAX line from downtown to Tualatin to serve a workforce that no longer exists. Failing to fix/upgrade the downtown transit mall. Throwing new hires onto the Extra Board without experience enough to handle the load, then firing them when they inevitably mess up. Problem is, you don't even need to care. Your employer loves you regardless of blunders. 

* * * * *

We need the right... TO STRIKE!!! TriMeth has grown too big for its britches. Time to bring transit down to the working folks' level. Don't institute "free fare" because there's too much of that already. As I've said many times before, NOTHING FREE IS EVER VALUED. The people who actually pay to ride are too quiet. They just roll with whatever TM dictates, resigned to the truth that their voice doesn't count. In such a liberal bastion of "give the beggars/druggies whatever they want", those who work hard every day and pay their fare are angry that TM puts "Customer Service Teams" out there to bend over backwards to the thieves of public service.

Our union needs to stage a massive rally downtown (in front of the fancy unstable tower from which you look down upon US) to call out your predictable shift to corporate models in administering a public entity. You're so out of touch with the reality of transit workers. You have failed to appropriately address the incredible stress so many of US have suffered over the years, resulting in PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which your lower management has yet to acknowledge fuels many of our SIP (Service Improvement Program, a joke of an acronym) notices. 

Sam, your transit system is a mess. Yet you smile for the cameras and have convinced yourself you're doing a great job. This reminds me of a fellow trucker trainee we nicknamed "Cletus" because he didn't realize on a live run he nearly killed us because instead of shifting down as a 9% downhill grade confronted his team, he was smiling and praising himself. Only when our trainer screamed at him to downshift did he heed the advice which likely saved the lives of six people in our Freightliner. 

Totally changing a decades-long training regimen where new operators work part-time through their six-month probation and a few months beyond before signing the Extra Board reminds me of Cletus's dismal performance decades ago. How many passengers have been injured or others harmed by this sloppy departure from keeping the public safe while retaining more competent operators? And this year you one-upped your perilous legacy allowing new hires to move immediately to rail. Operators need at least a year in a bus seat to learn how we work together to efficiently move passengers through mutual safety techniques polished over decades longer than either of us have worked here. You forget ATU757 is over 100 years old while providing Portlanders millions of safe miles. My tenure here is but one-tenth of that; yours even less, and you've never driven a bus in service here. Yet somehow you're qualified to usurp a century of safety for your misguided and desperate attempts to fill seats no matter the cost. Ouch, dude. That slap hurt thousands of our honored predecessors with scathing disrespect.

Now you've infuriated the people who roll wheels by hiring OUR attorney. Yet another insulting move. You're cementing a legacy here Sam, but it's not an honorable one. They're adding up, yet the Bored of Directors obviously loves you. We're watching a legacy which only fuels our growing loathing and bitterness toward you. Is that something to be proud of? I hope not.

* * * * *

Entering into contract talks with an outgoing union president on a four-year deal prior to the election of new officers who serve three-year terms, is yet another backhand to our collective face. They're beginning to pile up, dude. Instead of waiting to bargain with the new officers, it forced us to vote on a weak contract months before our current agreement expired. The vote caused deep rifts in our membership, likely another reason for this shady tactic. Divide and conquer, a thousands-year-old method of beating down the worker bees. Is this method a requirement for those aspiring to leadership roles? I'd bet hard-earned money it's a constant in your mind. Our raises pale in comparison to yours. The more you make, the added zeroes in your paycheck compound our negative purchasing power as your false praise echoes painfully in our souls.

That attorney you snatched from ATU757 is privy to the new team's desires and tactics. Now they have to regroup, determine how much damage this move has caused us moving forward. Likely a move you've been contemplating for quite some time now. I gotta hand it to you, it's a brilliant tactic. But it's one I hope you'll learn to regret. Our newly-elected leadership are wise to you, and you are at a disadvantage. Perhaps that's why you stole our attorney, because you're afraid of US now. Fear builds desperation, and now you're facing a fight against thousands of disaffected and furious union members. Put up your dukes, Sammy. We're not backing down. 

* * * * * 

We thought Neal McFarlane and Doug Kelsey, along with their hatchet man Randy Steadman, were bad. It seems you're trying to one-up their dominance and fear by one simple stroke of genius: hire our former union attorney. Bribe him into defection, clutching him close to he who has immediately become the enemy: YOU, the "BORED OF DEFLECTORS" and your scores of management devotees lurking within those who know your crime yet remain quiet just to keep their job.

Shame on you, Sam.

I was angry with you on many fronts before this move, but now, I won't even shake your hand if we pass in the hall. I cannot even look at you. To hire our local's attorney whose job was to protect US, is an unprecedented method of saying "FUCK YOU ATU757, WE OWN YOUR ASS". But you do not. We will rise up and kick your butt. You cannot constantly bully someone and expect the same result. That's insanity defined. Time for psychotherapy, Sam, because we're about to challenge your definition of sanity.  

This move was a hopeful nail in the mythical union coffin. It's one that will pop up and put your eye out. 

* * * * *

I call Dirty Pool, Sam. It was the name of my late best friend's band long ago, but it's now your nickname. Dirty Pool Sam. Go away. Resign in disgrace. Once hired to clean up your mess,  I'll IMMEDIATELY fire your newest hire. Let ME be the General Manager. I will set this crooked line straight and implore the Governor to replace the current Bored of Deflectors with replacements recommended by responsible adults in the tri-county. Your colors are too pastel, Sam. Let me overpaint them brightly to accurately portray the face of 2024 transit workers and passengers alike. You're obviously incapable.

It's sad as hell I had to write this post. Good fucking grief. I hope you have to change professions after this embarrassingly disgraceful tenure. Hiring your workforce's union lawyer is tantamount to hiring one to defend druggies on 5/Davis. Given Portland's current political bullshit, you'll fit right in. Unfortunately, after this post, none of your Operations Union Employees give one dodgam fuck what you think. 

Go away. You have failed. It's time for an Operator to run transit, because Corporata has proven it doesn't know how to do so effectively. I'll do it for half the price of you and your predecessors. And I'd do a much better job serving our community AND my fellow transit employees. 

#DekeForGM (Spread it wide, readers. If you care enough to replace Corporata with BlueCollar, that is.)