Unions reach out to non-unions for help

Lars Larson transcript,
NW based national talk show host

Portland’s Trimet should be called Un-met.

We should change the name of the 11th biggest transit agency in America from Trimet to Un-met. This government agency has run up hundreds of millions in pension and medical promises without the slightest clue where the money‘s coming from. It builds multibillion dollar light rail systems that literally break down on a daily basis but the best example of Un-met’s incompetence came recently.

Seems a lot of the transit agencies employees drive to work and won’t be able to use a parking lot during construction. So they have to be moved 2 miles with shuttles running every 15 minutes to a park-and-ride. Sounds like a job for someone with buses and drivers, right? Unfortunately, using Trimet unionized drivers, the cost would be obscenely expensive – about $8.5M over five years.

So Un-met has contracted out the service to a private company out of Chicago. The private company can get the job done for about a third of the cost. Still not answered are two really obvious questions, why don’t all those Trimet workers leave their cars at home? Secondly, why don’t we just contract all of Un-met out to a private company and get great service, uber inexpensively.

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