New York, NY – Thousands of striking school bus drivers and their supporters staged a protest Sunday, calling New York’s mayor “heartless” a day before the city opens competitive bidding for new contracts.
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Members of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union marched across Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall, demanding job security.
“We’re not asking for one benefit, or 10 cents,” said John Scotto, a Staten Island driver. “It’s simply for the right to come back to work in September.”
The striking drivers walked off their jobs Jan. 16. The city says it’s not required to guarantee jobs.
Video below credit, Shimon Gifter
Instead, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott have said that the city has to pick the most competitive bus companies to cut the costs of busing about 150,000 students to school, which have risen from $100 million in 1979 to $1.1 billion today.
Protesters filled a Broadway sidewalk behind police barricades.
Among them was Noah Gotbaum, a Manhattan widower raising three children — a 13-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy with special needs who was being bused to public school. The other two take public transportation.
The city is “trying to cut costs,” said Gotbaum. “And the workers are saying, ‘If you want to squeeze the profits of the bus companies, that’s fine. But stop trying to lower the bids on the backs of the workers.'”
Guaranteeing job security means attracting and keeping workers with more experience, Gotbaum said.
“I need and count on these folks every single day,” he said. “They’re as important to me as the teachers.”
Scotto, a father of four, said the families of the more than 8,000 striking drivers, matrons and mechanics also “are truly suffering now.”
He said 60 percent of them are women, and more than 80 percent minorities, making an average salary of $35,000.
The union is demanding that drivers continue to get the job protections they’ve had for decades.
The city says the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has barred city officials from including such provisions because of competitive bidding laws; the union said that’s not so.
More than 100,000 students have had to find other ways to get to school.
“The mayor forced this, he orchestrated it,” Scotto said. “He’s heartless and ruthless.”
Most of the city’s roughly 1.1 million public school students take public transportation or walk to school. Those who rely on the buses include 54,000 special education students and others who live far from schools or transportation.
The city doesn’t directly hire the drivers and matrons helping kids on and off buses; they work for the private companies.
Any company is free to submit a proposal to the city on Monday.
Local 1181 officials say members could suddenly lose their jobs when contracts expire in June.
These striking bus drivers claim they are not asking for “ten cents” in benefits. Are they really that dumb that they believe that a “guaranteed job” doesn’t cost anything. Most of us work in jobs which are deemed “at will”…which means we can quit at any time and our employers can fire us at any time, without giving us a reason. Why should they have job security, notwithstanding the fact that the courts have already ruled it would be illegal for the city to include such a provision in new contracts. If they ae good drivers and willing to work at whatever the market deems a competitive salary they will have a job. Otherwise, they deserve to be fired.
“Guaranteeing job security means attracting and keeping workers with more experience, Gotbaum said.”
This makes absolutely no sense. Anyone with a CDL license Is qualified to drive a bus. He has no idea if the car and driver has any significant experience, Or for that matter, a bad driving history.
Bravo Mayor Mike. The idea in this country is to try to get ahead. Driving a bus is a good job if you are trying to get through going to night school or looking for something to pay the rent while you try to get a real job. But it does no one any good to treat people who drive, or who babysit while other people drive, as if they have a legitimate career. It is a minimum wage job and people who do it should receive minimum wage.
My only issue is the new competitive drivers will be the Russian immigrants who couldn’t even get a job with access a ride. It will be absolute mayhem.
Next would be the bread bakers and dry cleaners marching across the Brooklyn Bridge for “guaranteed” wages. What’s that supposed to mean? The entire Union system of guaranteeing work is a sham and fraud.
Those that transport kids with special needs need loads of patience. I fear that the newly hireds might not handle that target group too well. The bus comapanies will be off the hook, claiming they did background checks and all checked out OK. Imagine your worst car service experoience, factor in a kid that is unlikely to coherently complain and there might be trouble.
Ha ha!
They are the joke of the town.
The drivers should understand that the same constitution that gives them the right to unionize and to strike, also gives us the right to chose the best deal.
Lets get this straight from the beginning. The only ones that need to guarantee job security to these people are the Unions. The only ones that owe anything to these employees are the Unions to whom they pay dues and to whom they owe their allegiance. The Mayor is heartless? Who exactly went on strike in the coldest climate leaving kids and parents stranded without service? No it is the Union that is heartless, not caring about its members nor the people it services!
It is the Union that sends these members out for jobs and it is the Union that is responsible to guarantee work for their members and not contractors! So that is the job of the Unions to find work for their members and that obligation falls on no one else’s shoulders but them. No one can force another person to guarantee work to Union employees. Any employer can choose to hire Union workers or not. The City can contract whomever they choose. Did the unions learn nothing from the Air Controllers strike? They did their members a complete disservice through this sham of loyalty!
Keep on striking, keep saving the city money