Portland's new city streetcar isn't scheduled to begin
running until March 2001, but it's already heading for
its first big collision.
Ron Heintzman, president of Amalgamated Transit Union,
Local 757, is threatening to sue Tri-Met if union members
aren't at the controls when the trolleys finally roll
down 10th Avenue on their way from Portland State University
to Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital.
Heintzman's logic is pretty simple: These are trains,
and who better to drive them than Tri-Met drivers? But
the union leader's position could derail the desires
of both the streetcar project's leaders and Tri-Met
itself.
While most Portlanders think of Tri-Met when it comes
to trains, the regional transit agency has played little
role in pushing the streetcars. Instead, the project
has been spearheaded by City Commissioner Charlie Hales
and the management of the nonprofit Portland Streetcar
Inc. Tri-Met's role has primarily been fiscal: The agency
will fund two-thirds of the streetcar's operating budget
and serve as the indirect conduit for $4.7 million in
federal funds.
It's that federal grant that Heintzman says gives him
leverage.
A 1980 agreement between Tri-Met and ATU provides that
the union gets first dibs on any jobs created with federal
funds. The current ATU contract with Tri-Met further
guarantees that drivers of any vehicles operated by
Tri-Met fall within the contract. Since two-thirds of
the streetcar's operating funds will come from Tri-Met,
Heintzman says hiring non-union trolley operators would
amount to contracting out ATU jobs.
Leo Wetzel, associate counsel in ATU's headquarters
in Washington, D.C., told WW that Tri-Met's future
access to federal funds could be jeopardized if the
1980 agreement is not followed. This year the agency
got $22 million in federal funds, out of a total budget
of $237 million.
Ironically, Tri-Met doesn't really want to get into
the trolley business and has only reluctantly agreed
to undertake basic maintenance work. In an internal
memo dated Feb. 16 that was obtained by ATU, Tri-Met's
director of rail operations, Dan Caufield, wrote, "We
are hoping for the minimum role in the streetcar operation,
so our work on MAX doesn't suffer by our being diverted
to something else."
The city also isn't rushing to bring Tri-Met on board.
The project boosters have promoted the line as cheaper
and more efficient than light rail.
"There are some issues we want [ATU] to be sensitive
to, primarily that this is not Tri-Met," says Hales
aide Marc Zolton. "We would like to approach it differently
costwise. We've got to pay our bills and operate this
car less costly than other transit operations in this
area."
Earlier this year, PSI's negotiator, Rick Gustafson
of Shiels Obletz Johnsen, floated the idea of hiring
drivers employed by Laidlaw Transit Inc. Heintzman says
he rejected that idea based on poor labor relations
with the company in the past.
"If they're just going to hire people off the street,
they're not going to get professionally trained people,"
he says. "And I think that's a big mistake from a safety
standpoint."
Hales insists that the two dozen streetcar operators
will be competent and well-paid. But, he adds, "Does
that mean we're going to take Tri-Met's [labor] agreement
and simply scratch out 'Tri-Met' and write in 'Portland
Streetcar Inc.?' I don't think so."
Heintzman says that although he first broached the
topic of representation more than seven months ago,
negotiations are just getting off the ground. The union
leader met with Gustafson and Hales last month.
While Gustafson and Hales both express optimism that
the two sides will reach agreement, Heintzman is frustrated
by his inability to get a straight answer. "They're
stalling," he says. "They're going to try and hire other
than Tri-Met folks at lower wage and benefits--and we're
not going to stand for it."
The final decision rests with PSI. Gustafson says the
threat to Tri-Met's funding worries him less than the
possibility of getting in a "contentious" relationship
with ATU, which he described as having "very good political
standing in this region."
The union's clout is unlikely to have escaped Hales'
attention as he considers his reelection bid and future
mayoral aspirations. As Gustafson says, "Charlie's made
it abundantly clear he wants us to work with the ATU."
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Willamette Week | originally
published November 3,
1999
