A few days ago KATU did an eye opening report on the lucrative compensation deal union workers get from taxpayers for working at TriMet. In the report (here) the Amalgamated Transit Union officials promised–twice–to talk to KATU but stiffed them both times saying they didn’t want to negotiate in the media. That, of course, hasn’t stopped the union from doing just that on You Tube (here).

Here are some of the eye popping numbers from the report.

• Tri Met union workers may retire at 58
• Tri Met union workers receive $1.18 in benefits for every $1.00 they earn in salary; in 2001 that number was $0.61
• Tri Met union workers receive the most expensive health benefits of any transit agency in the country, earning $1900.00/month.
• Tri Met union workers pay nothing for their health care
• Tri Met union workers who no longer work for the company receive $11,000 in benefits each year

As John Charles of Cascade Policy Institute says union officials have a decision to make, “You can either renegotiate your compensation and have an actual job or you can cling to some utopian version of benefits for a company that is bankrupt.”

Even TriMet spokeswoman, Mary Fetsch says things are out of whack. While noting that administrative employees at TriMet have been furloughed, undergone salary freezes and the like, the union, on the other hand has a different standard. Says Fetsch, “some of our benefits are out of alignment.”

But this isn’t only the problem of taxpayers here although the average salary is $108K a year at TriMet. This is a national problem. “Problem” because the American taxpayers are going to have to make good on these deals. Forbes Magazine reports,

In public-sector America things just get better and better. The common presumption is that public servants forgo high wages in exchange for safe jobs and benefits. The reality is they get all three. State and local government workers get paid an average of $25.30 an hour, which is 33% higher than the private sector’s $19, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Throw in pensions and other benefits and the gap widens to 42%.

The recent economic meltdown has made the taxpayer liability for these Tiffany plans even greater. Forbes:

The recent market meltdown erased $1 trillion from municipal pension funds, Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research figures. That has left the average public plan 35% underfunded. With benefits inexorably rising, the shortfall will balloon to 41% by 2013 if stocks and bonds stay at current levels, representing an unfunded liability of roughly $1.7 trillion, according to the Boston College center.

Forbes piece here. American Thinker blog runs it down for you here.