For two consecutive days, more than 100 TriMet operators called in sick, a dramatic increase that came on the tail end of two long, surreal and frustrating weeks for many transit operators who are still showing up during the coronavirus pandemic and despite their concerns about personal safety.

On Thursday, TriMet confirmed, some 160 operators called in sick. On Friday, the union representing those workers said 176 called in ill. A typical day during cold or flu season sees maybe 30 or 40 people call in ill, union officials said.

TriMet said the wave of calls didn’t disrupt service — the transit agency just calls in more people to work. On Friday, the agency announced it would make sweeping service cuts early next month to most bus lines, cutting frequency across the tri-county area.

But according to the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, which represents more than 2,500 TriMet employees, those two days were the culmination of two weeks of simmering frustration. The union stressed that it didn’t organize the workers to call in sick. TriMet and the union remain at odds over a collective bargaining agreement, which expired last fall.

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, the union has pushed for greater protections for bus drivers in particular and said TriMet was slow to act.

“Our folks are continuing to work,” Jon Hunt, the union’s vice president said last week. “A lot of them are scared, a lot of them are concerned.”

Other transit agencies stopped enforcing fares to limit face time with customers. Or restricted access to priority seating areas near bus drivers. Or mandated that passengers board through the rear doors.

“We feel pretty strongly that if they would have taken precautions that we asked, and that other agencies did, then they might not be looking at these numbers,” Krista Cordova, a labor relations coordinator with the union, said in an email. “They put their bottom line before the safety and wellbeing of our members.”

One veteran operator, who’s worked for TriMet for more than a decade, said morale is low among front-line workers, and they feel unheard.

“We know that we are essential employees. We keep the city moving. If it wasn’t for us a lot of people wouldn’t be able to make it to work,” the operator, who asked for anonymity given the prospect of potential layoffs facing the agency, said in an interview.

The operator, who said they are immunocompromised, said they asked for an N95 mask and were told there were none. They described receiving an ounce of hand sanitizer and a plastic sandwich bag with about 10 disinfectant wipes to clean their bus midday. They said they were expected to share the disinfectant wipes with the next driver who took over their route.

The operator said they ended up bringing their own disinfectant wipes, their own Lysol spray and their own hand sanitizer. “At the end of my runs, I take my disinfectant and I go through the bus and I wipe down each and every handrail,” they said.

It’s a frustrating situation. “We don’t want to be infected,” the operator said.

TriMet employees filling bottles of hand sanitizer. The agency said they initially struggled to get supplies.

Roberta Altstadt, a TriMet spokeswoman, said the agency struggled to get additional sanitation supplies for its 1,700 operators and other front-line workers. The 1-ounce bottles were the initial distribution, she said, but TriMet continues to hand out more supplies as they come in.

“That includes a large order of distillery-produced hand sanitizer,” she said.

TriMet also secured additional wipes to give out to operators, she said Friday, “and those should go out soon.”

“As I’m sure you are aware,” she said, “hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes have been in short supply with many orders being canceled.”

TriMet has since acquired 8-ounce hand sanitizer bottles to distribute to drivers. Hand soap has also been handed out for staff to use when they stop along their route for breaks.

Altstadt disputes the union’s figures for the number of workers who are calling in sick, saying February’s average was closer to 112 employees. But, she said, numbers are rising and TriMet expects they will continue to rise. “We’re definitely going to have more people call out,” she said Monday. “It’s the fear of possibly getting it,” she said of the virus, "while they’re doing their jobs.”

Those rising callouts will eventually fuel service cut decisions, too, not just the lack of ridership, Alststadt said. "

TriMet has steadfastly said the buses aren’t equipped to allow the majority passengers to board from the rear doors, a policy operators have called for to give employees additional space at the front of the bus.

Altstadt cited public health officials' guidance that 3 feet of social distancing is sufficient as long as that contact is not prolonged. TriMet believes that by eliminating cash payments, it is helping keep drivers safe.

The operator and the union believe the agency isn’t doing enough.

Allowing riders to board from rear doors, unless they have a mobility device, is an easy fix, the operators said. “That’s something that maintenance can take care of,” the operator said. Altstadt said that’s not true, and that buses would need software updates, in some cases, to allow driver to keep open the doors open, and those fixes could stretch out until the end of the year.

Meanwhile riders are still allowed to sit in the priority seating area or close to the operator. While the operators said their route is not one of the city’s busiest, and ridership has plunged, others are not as fortunate. “They’re standing in our zone. Coughing. Sneezing. Hacking whatever,” they said, “and we’re expected to work?”

Altstadt said Monday that the agency has pushed the yellow line at the front of the bus, behind which riders must stand, to 6 feet.

Hunt said union members fear layoffs. Meanwhile, the agency, which has added service in recent years due to state funding from a 2017 transportation package, continues to hire. Hunt said last week the agency was holding new-operator training classes with 20 people packed into a room, what he said is an unnecessary risk amid the pandemic.

“OK, folks, who’s in charge?” Hunt said of that decision.

Altstadt said TriMet is an essential service, and training new operators is critical to its operations.

She said TriMet’s attorneys reviewed Gov. Kate Brown’s social distancing order banning gatherings of certain sizes and the agency determined it was following those guidelines. “While we had maintained more than 3 feet of space between people in the classroom, we have now expanded the room to ensure 6 feet of spacing to be consistent with the Governor’s new order,” Altstadt said.

Meanwhile, ridership plunged more than 47% last week, and TriMet’s service cuts go into effect April 5.

UPDATE: A previous version of this story inaccurately cited the number of employees represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union.

-- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen

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