About the school bus drivers contract negotiations

We're honored to have the following contribution from Ange Beloy, UTU 1741 President, concerning the school bus drivers' ongoing labor negotiations with Laidlaw.

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For those of who do not care for busing, I remind you that we also do special education which is federally mandated. The following information pertains to regular education and special education drivers. We have been serving San Francisco since busing started. The number one person on our seniority list was hired in 1969. We have taken great pride in our jobs and want to attract people who will have the same attitude. If there is erosion to our contract & working conditions, then we will lose good people now as well as to not attract the good people later. It is not easy putting 70 kids in your back seat and driving them in the conditions of San Francisco, dealing with traffic, late parents, late schools, sleepers on the bus, fights etc. We are interested in quality people so we must be able to offer them a quality contract.

Our issues during our negotiations with Laidlaw are:

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• Increasing healthcare costs to the drivers

  we acknowledge the great plan we are under; we pay no copay for office visits, $2 & $5 prescription, $25.00 emergency room visits and our contribution is $30.00 per month. Blue Cross is trying to force us out by raising the cost to the company 38%. So we are willing to take a copay at the drs. office if the rest of the plan stays the same. The company bid high earlier this year with the health care in mind and they were awarded the bid.

• Getting a raise that will help maintain a full work force

  It has been said that we are the highest paid school bus drivers in the country; this may have been true years ago, but it is not the case now. In Hayward the drivers are making more than us and their cost of living is not as high as San Francisco. The average driver works 6-7 hours per day and we only work 180 days per year plus summer school if their seniority affords them a route. The field trips/charter work is not enough during the summer and drivers collect unemployment. Some of our members also qualify for aid from the city/state/federal government. We are asking for $1.00 per hour raise this year plus COLA. If we don't get this, with gas going up, bridge fare etc. I believe we will lose a significant number of members. These people will not be easy to replace, in 1998 we lost our 8 hour days when the kindergarten students went to school all day, we lost 55 drivers and we were 40 drivers short for two years. (more under "35 hour")

• Getting COLA for the length of the agreement

  It is important to our membership to have this Cost Of Living Adjustment. We have not had a raise in over 20 years. If it wasn't for our COLA, we would ALL qualify for public assistance as was the case in the 70's.

• Maintaining our "35 hour" guarantee language

  In 99, our members fought for more work. The company was not interested in doing charter work and would not hire a charter manager. So we ended up in Mayor Willie Browns office for mediation during the "run off" between Ammiano and Brown. Brown contributed $250,000. for the students of SF to have field trips on the mid day. This made it possible for our drivers to get what breaks down to 7 hour day but since most routes are about 6 hours, the extra hour was pooled together to allow a driver to take a school on a field trip about once or twice per week per driver. There were 120 of these routes, now we have lost some routes so the number will be 102. The company came to the table last week and said that the funds may not be there next year and we will no longer be able to fund the "35 hour" work. Obviously, the union has some questions for the Mayors Office.

• Clarifying the discipline language in our contract

  It is a disturbing trend throughout the school busing industry to not only offer low wages & a lousy health plan but to have high discipline standards. We believe that if a person is charged with an infraction, that they should have the right to due process just as any other system in the United States. The language in our contract accomplishes this, but with the turn over of management since the language was originally written, it is being misinterpreted. So we are trying to clean up the ambiguous language. We believe that IF you make it through the intense process of qualifying to be a school bus driver and the rigorous training it takes to get your school bus certificate that you deserve to be protected.

For more info contact: Ange Beloy or visit our web site: www.sfschoolbus.com

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Thanks Ange! I certainly hope that a contract negotiations can be concluded in time for the new school year. I think no one on any side of this issue wants to see a work stoppage.