Mayor sounds the tocsin over strife with union
... and stop is just what they might do.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- All the borough's middle schoolers are finally back on the yellow bus -- but for how long? A possible school bus strike when classes resume in the new year threatens to strand borough students of all ages.
"We are here because there is a strong possibility the union representing many school bus drivers and other bus workers will call a strike or a job action that would disrupt yellow bus service for more than 152,000 schoolchildren, beginning right after the holiday break," Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last week.
The potential strike would come at a tough time, the mayor said -- students have already missed a week or more of school due to Hurricane Sandy. The declaration of a strike would be "totally irresponsible," the mayor said.
"Nevertheless, we want to alert families to that possibility with ample time in advance to prepare," Bloomberg said.
There was talk of a strike by Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union last year, too, over basically the same issue -- the Department of Education has begun bidding out some of its school bus contracts. Last year, contracts for pre-K students went out to bid.
This year, it's service for 22,500 students in kindergarten through 12th grade who have disabilities -- that contract is up on June 30, 2013, and the DOE is seeking bids for a multiyear contract. The
1,100 special-education routes make up about one-sixth of the DOE's total bus routes.
"DOE has not bid out most of its bus contracts since 1979 -- 33 years ago. Since then, Department of Education's cost for busing has escalated from $71 million in 1979 to $1.1 billion a year today -- an increase of something like about 1,550 percent," Bloomberg said last week.
So as the contracts expire, the DOE is bidding them out and offering them to the lowest responsible bidder, Bloomberg said, in an effort to save money.
But Local 1181 is considering a strike because the bid specifications don't include job guarantees for certain drivers -- something Bloomberg said they cannot include by law. The state Court of Appeals ruled last year that the guarantee couldn't be included in the city's pre-K school bus contracts.
"So the union is protesting the exclusion of job guarantees that DOE is not allowed to provide in this request for bids. Let me repeat that: We are not legally permitted to do what they are asking -- which would make a strike not only irresponsible but totally pointless," Bloomberg said.
But some are skeptical of the city's assertions. Sam Pirozzolo, president of Community Education Council 31, said Bloomberg is "famous for doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants," and could find a way around the court ruling to include the employee protections at issue.
"Not only do I think he could find a way around it, he could ignore it just like he's done in so many other cases," said Pirozzolo, who was endorsed by Local 1181 in his failed bid for an Assembly seat this year.
Pirozzolo said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani tried to put the contracts out to bid and found it unsuccessful -- there's little way to save money when bus drivers and matrons are already paid little, Pirozzolo said.
"The bus drivers' union, the drivers and the matrons don't make an excessive wage," he said. "If you put the contracts out for bid without the employee protections, the quality of the drivers and the matrons plummets dramatically," Pirozzolo said.
It's a matter of safety, he said -- what kind of people will be working on the buses with students? He said the average salary is now $45,000.
"How much less does he want these people to make? He seems hellbent on taking out some sort of frustration here," he said.
And while nothing came of strike discussions last year, Pirozzolo said he believes a strike is possible this year.
If a strike does materialize, parents will have several options. A contingency plan was outlined in a letter home to public school students last week.
In the event of a strike, all students who get yellow bus service from a school bus stop can get a temporary MetroCard, valid for the duration of the strike. The MTA has been informed it may need to accommodate additional riders.
Parents of children in kindergarten through second grade can request an extra MetroCard, for use by a parent or guardian to escort the child to school
Parents of children in kindergarten through sixth grade who ride the yellow bus and cannot access public transit can be reimbursed for transportation. Those who choose to drive to school will be reimbursed at 55 cents per mile. Parents using taxi or car service will be reimbursed for the trip after filling out a form available in schools.
"We encourage families who drive or use a car service to carpool with their neighbors, if at all possible, because if you have an awful lot of cars showing up at a school at the same time, there's going to be a real traffic jam," Bloomberg said.
Field trips using yellow bus service will be canceled. Afterschool programs will be optional, but there will be no busing.
Students who are late to class will be excused for up to two hours, and those unable to attend school due to disruptions in service will be marked absent with an explanation code to ensure their attendance record isn't negatively affected.
For more information, call the Department of Education's Pupil Transportation Hotline: 718-392-8855. Information will also be online at NYC.gov.
"Every parent or guardian has to evaluate the particular needs of his or her child to make the best arrangements for transportation to the child's school. And in the meantime, we hope that the drivers' union will do the right thing and not proceed with a disruptive strike at the expense of city schoolchildren and taxpayers," Bloomberg said.