Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757
From Portland Afoot
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 is the union that represents TriMet's organized workers, including its operators, mechanics and some of its salaried office workers.
According to its 2010 report to the U.S. Department of Labor, the union had 4,383 active members as of June 2010, including 757 retirees. About 2,500 of those workers were TriMet employees, covered by the union's 2003-2009 contract with TriMet.
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[edit] Leadership
Jonathan Hunt became the president of Local 757 in 2006 and who was elected to his second three-year term in June 2009. As of May 2010, the local's vice president was Sam Schwarz and its secretary-treasurer was Evette Farra.
The union's main office is at 1801 NE Couch St. in Portland.
[edit] 2012 leadership election
Hunt has at least one opponent for Local 757's 2012 presidential election: Chris Day, who announced his candidacy in May 2011.
[edit] Units represented
ATU 757 also represents many smaller transit agencies and companies in Oregon and southwest Washington, including:
- First Transit, operator of TriMet LIFT
- C-Tran and C-Van in Clark County, Washington
- Portland Public Schools's in-house transportation services
- First Student, which provides transportation for Portland Public Schools, Corvallis School District and Corvallis City Transit
- Lane Transit District
- Salem Area Transit
- WHEELS, a service of Oregon Housing
- Rogue Valley Transportation District
- Bend Area Transit
- Canby Area Transit
- Tillamook County Transportation District
- Valley Transit Association
- MV Transportation
- Northeast Coalition of Neigbhorhoods, Inc.
- Lamar Advertising
The union also represents workers for the City of North Bonneville. "Basically everybody but the mayor and the judge, we represent 'em," Hunt said in May 2010. "It's like 10 people."
[edit] Rising compensation for officers
As reported in 2006 by Willamette Week, ATU officers' salaries have risen rapidly in the last decade despite few changes in membership. Combined officers' compensation rose 74% from 2000 to 2010, according to Department of Labor figures, the equivalent of a 5.7% annual raise each year of the decade.
Over the same 10-year period the union's annual income rose 1 percent, to $2,352,209, and its membership grew 6 percent, to 4,383.
[edit] Officers paid to represent union members
Union board members are paid for time they spend representing union members in labor disputes. Some officers must miss work to perform those union duties.
"The union doesn't believe that it is in its best interest for its officers' families to lose income because they want to assist their co-workers, especially when their opponents are being paid enormous salaries to fight them on these issues," ATU spokesman Jason Reynolds told Willamette Week in 2006.
In 2011, a commenter identifying himself as ATU board member Brian Pasquali of the Lane Transit District wrote on the blog "Going Back to True Union Values" that his pay reflected "hours I would have worked as a driver had it not be for union obligations."
Blogger Chris Day replied that board members who work at TriMet "do not lose hours like their fellow union officers from other properties."
[edit] Rising presidential compensation
Presidential compensation at ATU has risen especially fast. The president's pay and disbursements for official business rose 83% from 2000 to 2010, according to the Department of Labor figures, to $126,562.
That was the equivalent of a 6.2% annual raise each year of the decade.
[edit] External links
- official website
- ATU 757 bylaws
- TriMet wage scale
- 2003 ATU-TriMet contract
- 2010 report to Department of Labor, including budget and salary information
- search tool for other recent annual reports: click "union search" and select ATU as the "union name" and "757" as the designation number
- 12 years of annual reports, compiled by union presidential candidate Chris Day
- archived story about a disputed 2001 ATU leadership election, from Willamette Week
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