7/27/2019 Boston school bus drivers say: 'Enough is enough!'

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workers.org Oct. 15, 20

By Hannah Kirschbaum

Boston

Oct. 15 Beore the sun could rise overBoston on uesday, Oct. 8, the rank-and-lemembers o United Steelworkers Local 8751were taking a stand against what they called theunair and illegal practices o Veolia ransporta-tion, Inc.

Tese school bus drivers reported or work at

all our bus yards at their appropriate punch-intimes, but reused to drive their buses until Veo-lia agreed to a meeting with the union to discussissues regarding the companys ailure to adhereto terms and conditions o the signed collectivebargaining agreement. Te drivers stated theywere engaging in protected activity, not a strike.Minutes turned into hours with no responserom the company.

By 11:15 a.m., the companys response wasdelivered. Te drivers were ordered o the prop-erty at all our yards, and the gates were closedand padlocked. An illegal lockout had begun, anaction expressly prohibited by the contract.

Background on unair,

illegal company practices

Veolia assumed management o theBoston Public Schools transportation

vendor contract on July 1. On June 18,in the midst o a transitional periodprior to taking over management, Ve-olia signed an agreement that it wouldhonor the unions current contract andwould operate under all terms andconditions.

Drivers say the company hasconsistently ailed to honor theterms and conditions o thatcontract and in act Veolia hasengaged in a campaign to violatesome o its most critical aspects.Tey say that the contract rep-resents 35 years o collective-bargaining progress in wages,benets, working conditions and

drivers rights while on the job.Te workers have led in ex-

cess o 50 individual and classaction grievances against Veoliain violation o the contract. Teyinvolve massive and chronic weekly payrollshortages, including not allowing workers togenerate their own payroll documentation adecades-long practice o time-stamping DailyBus Reports; unsae and impossible bus routeproblems, resulting in late student pick-ups,drop-os and overcrowding o buses; unilateralchanges to and ailure to provide correct health,dental, sickness and accident, and long-termdisability insurance benets; ailure to provide

ecient training or license renewal; ailure abide by and adhere to the grievance and arbtration process; use o GPS in violation o provsions o the contract and many more issues.

In addition to the individual and class ation grievances, the United Steelworkers lean Unair Labor Practice containing 16 chargagainst Veolia with the National Labor RelatioBoard on Sept. 13. However, on Oct. 7, the loc

union was inormed by its international atorney that due to the ederal governmeshutdown, all related investigations, gatheing o witness testimony, and any action o

the unions demands weindenitely suspended.

Many o the drivers anthe rank-and-le leadehave told the media that thwas the proverbial straw th

With Veolias lockout, suspensions

Boston school bus drivers:Enough is Enough!

Th what aLock-ouTLooks Like

Drivers at Readville on Oct. 10 standing up to heavycompany/police intimidation.

ww Phot

7/27/2019 Boston school bus drivers say: 'Enough is enough!'

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Continued from page 1 workers.org Oct. 15, 2013

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broke the camels back. USW Local 8751Vice President Steve Gillis stated duringa rally on Oct. 10, Our drivers were de-nied their rights under the law to havethe government act on their complaintsand were orced to take matters intotheir own hands [on Oct. 8]. We demand

that Veolia immediately stop their un-air labor practices and honor the contract theysigned.

When City Councilor Charles Yancey, a re-spected Arican-American community leaderand 13-term councilor, learned o the dispute be-tween the drivers and Veolia, he personally wentto Veolias corporate oce. At 11 a.m., Yancey,accompanied by Gillis and a delegation o driv-ers, attempted to request a meeting with Veoliato discuss the drivers protest and issues. A groupo Veolia managers reused to speak with Yanceyand called the police to throw the group o theproperty. Boston police and company managers

closed and locked the gate behind them.Tat afernoon Veolia made a motion in the

U.S. District Court o Massachusetts request-ing an injunction ordering the drivers back towork. Judge George A. Ooole Jr. denied theirrequest, based on the act that there was no cred-ible evidence that the workers were on strike orplanned a strike the ollowing day.

Negative media and role o city ofcials

For our days, rom Oct. 8 to 11, the Bostonschool bus drivers actions were headlined in themedia covered even beore the Boston Red

Sox and their postseason road to victory. De-spite being at the our bus yards almost aroundthe clock and making dogged attempts to inter-

view bus drivers, most o the media coveragewas negative and anti-union, with little regardor actual acts.

Besides not allowing neutral or pro-unioncommentary, the media ocused on negativeand slanderous comments by city ocials. Tisis noteworthy because the bus drivers are em-ployed by Veolia, a private company, and not bythe city o Boston, making them private ratherthan public employees.

City ocials, Mayor Tomas Menino in

particular, are well aware o the unions historyand reputation o assertive advocacy or work-ers rights. Tey viewed this dispute as a con-

venient opportunity to launch an unyielding,anti-union campaign. Press statements by o-cials delivered alse reports about the driversissues. Tey also labeled union leaders roguesand renegades, saying they selshly risked thesaety o Boston school children by reusing todrive. Mayor Menino went so ar as to say thatthe drivers were selsh, angry people who cantollow rules. Tey claimed that the union in-stigated an illegal strike while saying nothingabout the companys lockout.

While acknowledging the ederal courts rul-ing against an injunction, Menino called or thetermination o all employees involved in thestrike. Te Boston Public Schools issued dailyrobo calls to parents raudulently warning o

impending problems caused by the renegadeelement o school bus drivers who were insti-gating the strike, even afer the lockout endedthe next morning.

Veolias bad aith negotiations:An injury to one is an injury to all!

Union leaders said that on Oct. 9, afer thecompany ended its illegal lockout and nallyagreed to meet with the union, the drivers re-turned to their runs in a show o good aith. Ne-gotiations between Local 8751 and Veolia lastedapproximately 10 hours that day.

Nevertheless, the parties were unable to come

to an agreement on any o the 15 issues the unionwanted to discuss. Instead, company manage-ment responded by delivering letters o suspen-sion, with the threat o termination, to Local8751 Vice President Steve Gillis and GrievanceCommittee Chairperson Steve Kirschbaum, andby threatening disciplinary action against an ad-ditional ve union members. As o Oct. 15, threemore drivers are being disciplined.

Despite a large, heavy-handed police pres-ence o dozens o cops and under the watchuleye o the media, hundreds o workers ralliedin support o the two suspended leaders at theReadville bus yard at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 10. Tey

came rom all our city bus yards. Te workersroared their support or several minutes beoreKirschbaum, a ounder o the union, and Gil-lis were able to give their speeches about whathappened at the negotiations. Both men havedecades o leadership in the union.

For this and other videos giving the workerspoint o view, see the eam Solidarity website attinyurl.com/d5tntcg.

As drivers rom all our bus yards took themicrophone, they vowed to stand as one withtheir leaders and to continue their just struggleuntil Veolia and the city o Boston respect their

contract and their rights.

On Oct. 10 a standing-room-only solidarimeeting called on a days notice by eam Sodarity (the rank-and-le organization o the bdrivers union), was packed with a broad crosection o political allies, including leaders o t

Coalition or Equal Quality Education, PalestinSolidarity, Boston Bolivarians, Womens Fighback Network, along with students, Eastern Bworkers, Brockton eamsters school bus driers, Southeast Asian political activists, and curent operating engineer and ormer school bdriver Lendy Ware.

Myls Calvey, a militant leader o InternationBrotherhood o Electrical Workers Local 22representing telephone workers at Verizon, anPaul Kildu, president o the Metro Boston 1American Postal Workers Union, extended oers o assistance and concrete solidarity.

Local 8751 has consistently waged a strugg

or economic and social justice one that icludes but hasnt been limited to the saety Bostons school children. Te very existence anmission o the union is bound up with the strugle o Arican-American and other oppresscommunities or equal education since the dsegregation o Bostons schools by court-orderbusing in 1974.

Local 8751 was ounded and built on ranand-le militancy, winning union recognitioand respect through its willingness to take ation. Because o its reputation and the massiinvolvement o the membership in its action

there has been no need to suspend bus servisince 1991 in order to win decent contracts.Go to the acebook page o eam Solidari

the Voice o United School Bus Union Worers or updates.

Community &Labor Support

Its our jobs, our buses and our unions. Whos Veolia

Stringing up signs with the real message.