Officials belonging to the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1181 demonstrated outside New York’s City Hall on 23 January to demand that Mayor Michael Bloomberg meet with school bus drivers and matrons to settle their ongoing strike for job protection.
The workers have been on strike since 16 January over a threat to their wages and benefits by the City’s proposal not to include Employee Protection Provisions (EPPs) in its new busing contracts which will come into effect by September 2013. Parent groups, unions, and other supporters have stood in solidarity with the striking drivers and matrons.
The matrons – who are trained in such skills as CPR – and drivers work for private bus companies but for nearly 50 years, the City has included an EPP in all school bus company contracts. The workers believe that the EPP is directly linked to the safety and security of New York’s children by ensuring that the most qualified, skilled and experienced school bus crews remain on the job.
Larry Hanley, ATU international president, said:
“Our bus drivers and matrons are experienced and skilled at taking care of our young children and those with special needs on their journeys to and from school each day. Yet these workers are facing an assault on the foundation of decent wages, decent health care and decent retirement standards. The mayor needs to meet with us urgently to thrash out a resolution to this dispute."
On 16 January, the union launched a television and radio advertisement campaign under the slogan ‘Tell Mayor Bloomberg kids come first’.
