Whose side are you on?

I know, I know. It’s been a while since I sat down and wrote anything. I’ve been a little busy working for TriMet, Portland’s public transit company. It’s been an interesting few years, to say the least. It is a strange job where we not only have to safely operate a 20 ton bus, but also provide customer service and keep to a schedule that is counted in seconds . . . multitasking is a necessity and having a modicum of people skills is a must. And, to top it all off, we are now in contract negotiations. It is not going well.

Management presented the union with a whole bunch of demands that would essentially strip the union and union employees from all the benefits of being organized. Essentially, management’s position is that, since the Janus decision, it (management) should be able to bust the union, fire all the union employees and contract all labor positions to outside companies. Well, at least that’s the push on management’s end of the negotiating table. With a new general manager and a new labor relations director, we were expecting some improvement in these contract negotiations. Instead, it seems to be more of the same with the new general manager and new labor relations director moving to pay outside contractors to fill nearly 3,000 union jobs and further degrade the standard of living for average Portlanders.

I’ll be the first to admit that our union is not as strong in it’s public advocacy as it could be. I’ll also admit that not everyone in union positions particularly appreciates being a union employee. But, what I will say is that it is very important that all of us union employees, maintenance, service and operators, to hold together, to help our union reps learn how to advocate and to learn how to be better, more supportive union members. We also need to remember that being a union member is not for the rights of an individual worker, it is for the rights of all workers. While one individual may not see benefits garnered to an individual, when one takes a larger frame of view, one sees how all of us union members benefit from the union.

I want to give a big shout-out to the service workers who keep our buses clean, fueled and ready for service. They work hard, behind the scenes, to help bus drivers (operators) present a professional face to the public. They clean up after passengers, mop up bio-hazards and do all the janitorial work that we would rather not think about too much because, well, humans are very messy. These people rarely get any recognition for their work, even though the work they do is so important.

Next, we gotta give our hardworking mechanics a round of applause. They keep our buses rolling and safe. When operators have problems on the road, maintenance workers get us moving. They keep the fleet inspected and they keep all of us safe as we move down the road. Maintenance workers, you keep us all moving forward.

And last, but certainly not least, operators, the public face of TriMet, that face you see when you are headed into work to begin your day. That face you see when you are dead on your feet after a long day’s work. That face you see when you just need to run a few errands, get out of the house or go visit friends. We see people being people every hour of every day: the good, the bad, the ugly, we see it all and are expected to maintain safety and order on the buses we operate.

I like talking with members of each of these departments as often as possible: I’m that driver who wanders the yard from time to time, chatting with service workers or snagging maintenance workers for a quick word. What I’ve seen over the last few months is a breakdown in appreciation and communication between the maintenance, service and operators. Individually, service, maintenance and operator workers are great, but the generalized comments I hear worries me. What I want to stress more than anything else, though, is that we are all members of the same team.

Talking with my coworkers, I heard grumblings from service workers about having to clean around the driver’s area of the buses. I know cleaning hundreds of buses a night is no one’s idea of fun, but, you, service worker, are helping to keep us safe when you clean the interior windshield and dash areas. The interior gets smudges, dust collects and people spill stuff, sneeze, cough, etc. The glare from the interior glass causes distracted driving and causes extra eye strain and headaches as we are driving. The dust and other special particulates on the dash area get blown into driver’s faces whenever we turn on the fans and front area defroster/heater. Please remember that drivers rely on service workers not only for the sake of appearances, but also for our safety.

I also talk as often as I can with members of maintenance. They do a great job keeping our equipment in working order, but I’ve heard some mechanics think that they are too specialized to help the entire team keep our buses in good repair and rolling safely. While I completely understand having a specialty, an area of repair at which you excel, please know that operators rely on you to keep us safe and keep us rolling with as little downtime for individual buses as possible. Yes, I know that working outside of your area of specialty is daunting and frustrating. Imagine being an operator who has several things go wrong at the same time with a bus full of people during rush hour traffic. Now, whose job is more daunting and frustrating?

Drivers, please remember to thank the service and maintenance workers who keep our fleet running. Take a moment when you’re in the yard to acknowledge your coworkers’ hard work. It may seem like all that drivers say is, “thank you,” but you know what? It takes a hardworking team to keep us out on the road, picking people up and dropping people off safely and reliably. Yes, we have a strange job, but without the support of maintenance and service workers, we would not be nearly as successful as we are.

I have not yet talked about an unsung set of coworkers who are technically supervisors, but are really a layer of protection between operators and management/the general public. They are the road/rail supervisors, fare inspectors, station agents and dispatchers/controllers. This level of supervisors have the herculean task of keeping the operators somewhat in line, enforcing rules and regulations in general and otherwise serving as a buffer between operators and the general public. Dispatch/Control? The stories they can tell about how crazy our transit system can get. Road/Rail sups and Fare Inspectors? They can dish on just how wild it is to work with the general public. Station Agents? They herd cats (operators) all day and ensure that the office side of driving bus/light rail goes somewhat smoothly. They know what it can be like, from an operator’s perspective, when things go horribly pear-shaped during the day.

At the end of the day, we are a team, supervisors, operators, maintenance and service, no matter what management says or does. We are there to help one another out, to work together to show TriMet’s best side. You know why? Because without us in labor, management would not have a job.