JH 58 Pay -Shortages Looming as Powder Keg Issue

The Joe Hill LTD Project
Pay -Shortages Looming as Powder Keg Issue who will be accepting the responsibility for this?

Maybe Ken Hamm should have taken a moment to check with Diane Hekelson and see if she was shorting the pay of union employees before his inappropriate and impulsive degrading behavior. Instead Hammbert in his usual superior arrogance sends his symbolic dollar bill to insult one of our fellow members. Excuse me! What is the symbolism we should conclude from this vicious act. Answer: that we need to know our place. We should be saying "Thank you Mr. Hamm, oh thank you sir," as we tug at our fore lock of hair. It is like a scene from Oliver Twist.

Instead of this disgusting vision we should demand an outside independent audit and get the money they owe us.Where is the Board of Directors? Can't they control their "bull in the china shop" General Manager? His record of lack of accomplishment is shocking. Three years of declining ridership. Service reductions in each fall of the last three years. Ever rising costs of the BRT beast. And the ill fated decision to charge us for health insurance that an arbitrator wisely and correctly pointed out was in violation of our contract. Then wasting $2.5 million on worthless AVS buses (even though Pangbert took the fall for this huge mistake) the buck must stop with Hammbert - after all he is the one handing out the buck in his disgusting and insulting way. When is the Board going to recognize that the General Manager is wrong for the proud traditions of LTD. The Board needs to wake up!

Hamm sits on big pile of money and cheats workers.
Don't trust LTD!

Union members get your pay stub's out. Check them closely. Do not trust the LTD Hammbert answers. Hekelson is definitely over her head on payroll issues for union members - or maybe its just a bias. I will bet you that no administrative employee ever had their pay shorted regularly. Following the union meeting this week Dan Dreier posted this on the Joe Hill LTD Project Blog -

"...The issue of short pay came up at the union meeting. I went home and checked my statements for the year. Out of 19 checks, I found 20 mistakes in 16 of 19 statements. (Just multiply your hours by you rate of pay.) ..."
In Solidarity,
Dan Dreier

This is an overall error rate of 118%!!!! And an error rate of 75% for checks issued to Brother Dreier. In other words only 1 in 4 checks that are issued to Brother Dan is without an error. And for every error check, 1 of 8 will likely have more than one error.

If you went off route that many times in 32 weeks do you think that you would still have a job? If you got this many customer complaints in 32 weeks do you think you would still have a job? If you stole this much money from LTD in 32 weeks do you think that you would still have a job? Our jobs require precision in many ways. Precision is demanded from drivers when reporting for duty. If you're even one-second late it could cost you a days pay. What about being late 75% of the time. I don't think so. If you are one-second late after a holiday, you forfeit your holiday pay. If you're one-second late and are on a letter of warning or suspension for previous lates, it could (and in some cases has) cost you your job. Should LTD's precision in our pay be any less? Do you think it is ok for LTD to steal from us at this rate in 32 weeks? I have heard the same old "rounding" excuse for my own paycheck way too many times. But I am not going to let it slide anymore and neither should you.

I am glad that the Union is going to grieve this but LTD is not only violating our contract. LTD is breaking the wage laws of Oregon. Maybe we should also file wage claims with the BOLI where penalties and interest may also be owed.

You know, I don't feel like a "family fun day" if my pay is wrong or in doubt. I just can't imagine having fun with Hammbert. And as long as Ken Hamm is cheating our pay do you think I will trust him with a fee for golf. Forget about it! - besides how appropriate is it that we should be funneling money through private persons for what is an supposed to be an LTD event? I wonder how much Ken Hamm or Mark Johnson will rake off the top? Maybe free green fees for the organizers?

In Solidarity,
Joe Hill
JH 58