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Private transport companies in the US are fiercely defending their anti-union policies as they jostle for a market share in the American road transport and school bus industries by Steve Edwards

Having secured a US$12million contract to operate school buses on 280 routes in July 2003, UK-owned FirstGroup lodged a legal challenge against a union-friendly resolution passed by the Minneapolis/St Paul School Board.

The resolution, the culmination of months of campaigning by the Service Employees’ International Union Local 284, supported by AFL-CIO, had guaranteed some union rights for employees if private contractors wished to bid for school bus work. The resolution allowed for unions to hold an election ballot within one month on a show of signed cards, and also ensured that no industrial action would occur during that process.

Now the union does not expect to find the financial resources to contest the legal challenge.

In late 2003, FirstGroup expanded its empire with the purchase of the transit coach services division of Coach USA. This was sold by UK based Stagecoach due to financial difficulties following its acquisition of Coach USA at an inflated purchase price in 1999.

Other Coach USA divisions have been disposed of to a mixture of buyers including other operators, management and venture capital businesses. The company has retained only the profitable commuter lines in New York, New Jersey and Chicago. The impact of these transactions on the fortunes of union members remains to be seen.

FirstGroup is not the only UK transport multinational that has adopted an anti-union stance in North America while maintaining a system of recognition, negotiation and consultation in the UK. National Express school bus subsidiary, Durham School Services, has also been at the centre of criticism from US unions and both companies have been involved in recent National Labor Relations Board hearings.

In Milwaukee the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) won three election campaigns at one Durham facility and two contracted to the premier school bus giant Laidlaw. Durham responded by withholding annual pay increases and stopping drivers from taking their buses home.

AFSCME filed charges against both companies for breaking employment legislation but during the bidding process for the school bus work, both companies bid very high. They knew that the contracts would be awarded to the lowest bidder and consequently both failed to win any tenders.

The School Board, under pressure from the union and local community, agreed to re-open the bidding process. Laidlaw agreed to participate and kept the work at both terminals but only after weakening the employment contract with the union. Durham refused to participate in any form with the bidding process and its terminal remained closed.

The Teamsters Union has also run into problems with Durham at several of its locations. Union elections were won at Livermore and Hayward in California (June 2001) and at St Louis, Missouri (January 2001) but Durham has refused to bargain in good faith at any of these facilities and continues to prolong the process of negotiating the first contract.

This delaying tactic has been drawn out for over two years. At the St Louis location it appears that a manager instigated a decertification of the union, followed by the company waging the usual anti-union campaign. Thanks to hard work by the members, the Local 610 of the Teamsters Union and the Union’s International Strategic Campaigns Department, the decertification was defeated by a 77–34 vote of the membership in September 2003.

International campaign
The Teamsters have been involved in an International campaign, reaching out to the ITF and other unions in the UK and Australia. They have received solidarity action from around the world and support that has been both beneficial and greatly appreciated by the members.

Recently a successful rally was held in El Paso, Texas, where a football stadium facility has been financially supported by Larry Durham, Chief Executive of National Express in the USA. The union was able to raise local awareness that Durham School Services was treating its employees very badly. The action included a plane flying overhead during a football game. It flew a huge banner bearing the message “Durham fumbles child safety”, a reference to the poor mechanical maintenance of Durham buses in some US states.

Steve Edwards is an advisor to the ITF Urban Transport Multinational Committee.

Union benefits in the US private sector (all industries)

• Average earnings: US$31.18 per hour (non-union average: $21.59)
• Members with medical insurance: 75% (non-union insured: 49%)
• Members with pension: 83% (non-union with pension: 44%)

Membership statistics

• Only 8.5% of workers are unionised in the private sector (against 37.5% of workers in the public sector)
• 44 million US workers want to join a union but cannot, according to a survey by AFL-CIO in 2002
  
  Anti-union tactics include…
  
• Mandatory “captive audience” meetings – workers can be dismissed or disciplined for not attending meetings – used in 92% of all anti-union campaigns in the private sector“One-on-one” pressure – occurs in 78% of all campaigns in the private sector
• Delay of proceedings (strengthens employers’ position) Illegal firing of employees
• Employing “union-busters” to discredit unions and their campaigns
• Often there are no penalties for violating labour relations legislation