ATU Local 757 contract at TriMet to be determined by arbitrator

Union workers at TriMet, Oregon’s largest transit agency, may soon test a new process for resolving contract disputes. Under a union-supported state law, transit district employees can’t strike; instead both sides submit their final offers to an arbitrator, who picks whichever is most reasonable.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 is proposing to keep the contract exactly the same for the next three years. The contract includes fully paid full-family health care, and annual cost-of-living increases from 3 to 5 percent.

TriMet, on the other hand, is proposing dozens of changes, including lowering the minimum cost-of-living increase to 1 percent. The agency also wants union workers to pay more out-of-pocket for their health insurance. Active members and pre-Medicare retirees receive employer-paid family health coverage. Members have $5 co-pays, but no premiums or deductibles.

The old agreement, which ran six years, expired Nov. 30, 2009. It covers about 2,000 active members, plus retirees.

Bargaining on a three-year agreement began in October. Union leaders said TriMet’s initial employer proposal was so bad, they mailed it out to all Local 757 members at TriMet.

Since then, TriMet has made some concessions, but is still proposing:

• that employees hired after April 1, 2012 receive a 401(k) style “defined contribution” retirement plan;

• that retirees be at least age 55 to collect retirement benefits (the current contract specifies benefits after 30 years of service regardless of age);

• that retiree health insurance contributions be capped for union members retiring after April 2012.

“They want to take these retirees when they’re most vulnerable and throw them under the bus,” said Local 757 President Jon Hunt. “We don’t think that’s right.”

The two sides entered mediation June 7, and declared impasse July 13, presenting final offers July 20. They will next choose an arbitrator from a list supplied by the state Employment Relations Board, and then will have a chance to make a deal before presenting their very final offers to an arbitrator, who will pick one of the two proposals in its entirety.

Local 757 will hold membership meetings to discuss its final proposal.