(March 17, 2009)--Nearly ten months ago, school bus drivers employed by the student transportation contractor for West Hartford Public Schools voted overwhelmingly to join CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 in order to "drive up standards" at their worksite and in the industry. Since that time, their employer, First Student, Inc., has been unwilling to make negotiating a first contract a priority, and failed to provide an expected response to the Union's latest proposals at a scheduled March 12 session.
"We are demanding First Student provide fair, equitable wages because that's what it takes to keep skilled, experienced drivers" West Hartford Public Schools' bus driver Wanda Cobbs said after negotiations were tabled at last week's session. "They are a profitable, global company and they can afford to invest in their most important asset -- their school bus drivers" she continued.
First Student, Inc. was awarded a five-year transportation contract to West Hartford Public Schools in mid-May, two weeks before the bus drivers voted "union yes." The company is a subsidiary of FirstGroup, a United Kingdom-based transport provider with operations throughout North America and Europe that employs 67,367 worldwide, and reported sales of $5.06 billion in 2005.
At a March 4 session, members of the union's negotiations committee proposed wage increases that would bring West Hartford's school bus drivers in line with First Student's own employees in other districts in the region, as well as employer-provided healthcare. Members of the union are concerned that low wages and lack of access to affordable healthcare threatens to drive skilled transportation professionals away from West Hartford to work in other communities.
Union School Bus Drivers Get Moving
