The union representing school bus drivers may walk out, putting their grievances on the picket line if they can’t come up with an agreement with the city on a number of contract issues.
Members of Amalgamated Transit Local 1181 have threatened to strike after the city told the union that the Department of Education will seek a new bid for yellow bus contracts for special education, pre-kindergarten and preschool students. The union wants a guarantee that the city will protect the jobs of current drivers with whatever company they offer the contract.
Bloomberg called the idea of a strike “just outrageous” and that an “illegal” strike would “harm the education of more than 152,000 students if [the union] doesn’t get its way.”
“And that is why the city has asked the National Labor Relations Board for an ‘unfair labor practice’ ruling against the union,” said Bloomberg during a briefing last week. “We’ve also asked the board to seek an injunction in federal court.”
The union responded immediately to Bloomberg’s words.
“Although Mayor Bloomberg’s failure to put the safety of New York City children first makes a strike likely, there are no immediate plans for one,” said ATU Local 1181 President Michael Cordiello in a statement. “The issue here is getting children to school safely and securely. All the mayor has done is create more chaos, instability and concern among parents about NYC school buses, which have already been poorly managed for years.
“The crucial provisions the mayor has suddenly eliminated not only ensure a stable, experienced workforce-they protect the hundreds of thousands of city children who get to school every day in the hands of that workforce,” Cordiello continued. “The casting away of experienced, well-trained employees in favor of companies who are simply seeking to provide bare-bones service at the lowest possible cost is a risky, ill-conceived public policy that directly threatens the safety and security of our children.”
City Hall officials said they hadn’t heard of a timeline for a potential strike so they couldn’t give a guarantee of when a walkout would occur. But they are prepared.
According to Bloomberg, Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Chairman Joe Lhota made 300,000 MetroCards available in case of a work stoppage. “They are being made available at schools and should be requested through the school’s general office,” he said. “Each card is good for a ride to and from, about $4.50 if I remember correctly, and each day you can get one for the following day. We have already informed the MTA that it may need to accommodate additional riders because of the extra usage of their system.”
