My Next Board Meeting Speech-Please Give Advice! My Guts Need It!

Well, I finished my board meeting speech, already, yes, I know. But as I wrote it, I realized I was being pretty hard-hitting. Part of me thinks TriMet needs it but I don't wanna kick TriMet in the balls or anything, just splash water on them to wake them up.

Anyway, here we go. I'd appreciate advice and your opinion to make sure I'm not booted out or anything.

Hello. I'm Cameron Johnson, 16 year old bus rider. However, this time I am not speaking just for OPAL Bus Riders Unite. I'm speaking for everyone who is even the slightest involved with TriMet. Because it's no longer JUST Riders or JUST Union members.

Recently a letter was released from McFarlane to the Union regarding the health debacle. Pretty much flat out it stated that if the workers didn't comply to the new healthcare, that TriMet would execute another $10,000,000 in service cuts. Now I'm sure that I'm not the only one who thinks this sounds like a devious threat.

Now this is just too sneaky to sound like a mistake. Think about it. It's near blackmail. If the Union were to still press on for their benefits, TriMet would open up the trapdoor on Bus Riders, and be able to say “If only your bus drivers had only complied to our terms, then you would not have suffered.” Then everyone's going to go up in arms against the drivers and the union.

But if riders go up in arms about this, the Union will see this as a force to concede and swallow the pill of crappy benefits, then the riders are spared, but the drivers are going to have the riders to blame for their suffering.

Or it could go neither way. The Union presses on, riders get cut, and then they still screw over the drivers in the end. Then everyone's fighting with everyone. What you are forcing in this Hobson's Choice will all but end in a riot.

Don't tell me for an INSTANT that you can't get 10 million anywhere else. You say you have to replace the oldest buses in the fleet. Well tough luck, that should have taken place before you even made a vote about it, a vote, I may add, wouldn't even have gone towards new buses in the first place, rather operation costs to fill in your prior mistakes. And how do we even know it was going to operation costs, and not the MAX? I'm sure those old people on the poster you flaunted for the measure are thrilled to hear that.

Also you need money for the MAX Line. Cause you know the billion you gave last month wasn't enough. I know I pick on the MAX line a lot, but there's no way you can honestly tell me to my face that a loss of $10,000,000 would make it impossible to build the MAX. At most your shelters would have to go without glittery tiles.

My point is, instead of fessing up and being responsible, you're starting to blind everyone who rides or drives in TriMet into fighting each other while hiding the fact that the only culprit here is you. All because you're too miserly to spend $10 million on your employees. You need to realize what these people are worth. They are your backbone. They are your profit. They are what keeps your resume solid or keeps your budget higher than ours. It's high time that you took a moment and tried to benefit them instead of screwing them all over in one fell sweep. You attract more flies with honey than vinegar. I've tried to give you plenty of honey, but we're desperate for something sweet.

Just please...consider.

So SickOut of this Hate

You probably heard of all the Union vs TriMet wars stuff. It is really getting on my nerves, mostly because a lot of this stuff is out of my league. Trust me, I'd hate that people are losing their benefits, but to be honest, the way some of them plan on taking this out is just... wrong.

Tons of Transit Drivers may or may not be planning a sick out tomorrow. Now for those of you who don't know of this, from what I gathered, it's when a bunch of employees call in sick in protest to something the company is doing, i.e. in TriMet's case, the benefits problem.

Now let me say that a Sick-Out is a horrible thing to do in this case. Hundreds, if not thousands of people will be inconvenienced or totally screwed over if the bus runs less. This seems almost... selfish. Trust me, it's frustrating not being heard, trust me, I don't think the board really listens to my work or anyone else's speeches when they speak. They've proved this time and time again by hearing a heartfelt speech by someone who wants the best for their community and unanimously voting yes on what said speaker was protesting and not even noticing half the room moan in disappointment and hopelessness.

Yeah, yeah, it seems overdramatic, but that's pretty much it. The TriMet board are made of nice enough people who don't have a clue about Transit and only about construction. They are by far my least part of TriMet and what make it so hard to be TriMet's ally.

But where was I? Oh yeah, the sick-out.

I know that doing a sick-out will get you heard, but you know what they hear? They hear "These drivers are unreliable and rebellious. We told them not to do a sick-out and they did anyway." They'll fire you and any driver that really is sick. Or, since it's about Bus, they'll just *insert a joke about them being anti-bus here*

Ahem... sorry about that.

But there's better ways to get a voice heard, and you've already planned one- a Board Meeting Protest outside the Portland Building. I say, rant and bullhorn through that entire meeting! If they don't pay even a sliver of attention to you guys, there's leverage for you to use. You can say the board doesn't care about bus drivers.

And if they do pay attention, and actually listen, then that's obviously good in obvious ways. Things may actually get better.

Doing a sick-out means nothing gets better. It just gets worse, for drivers, for TriMet, for passengers, pretty much everyone in the city. And this isn't Union-approved, far from it, The ATU president actually said "Don't do it." He knows better.

So, I urge the few drivers who do read this, please don't do it this way. You're only going to harm yourself.

Someting Interesting Happen Already!

You see, there's a reason I don't post much anymore.

I HAVE NOTHING TO POST.

Sure, there's the union healthcare thingamajig. But bear with me, I'm a beginner at Union stuff, and I don't have a clue what is really going on, therefore I have nothing to say.

So, here's hoping something not-boring happens. Any suggestions?