N.Y. - Labor Officials Refuse To Force End To Two-Week-Old School Bus Strike
National Labor Relations Board officials refused Friday
to order an end to a two-week-old school bus strike in New York City.
Lawyers for the board issued a memorandum rejecting a
complaint brought by a group of 20 private bus companies who argued the strike
was illegal.
The decision mirrored past NLRB rulings and was widely
expected, but will still disappoint some parents hoping for a quick end to a
strike that has been hardest on students with disabilities.
Around 8,000 drivers and bus aides with Local 1181 of the
Amalgamated Transit Union walked off the job Jan. 16 as part of a complicated
labor dispute revolving around job security provisions.
Just a fraction of New York City’s public schoolchildren
ride buses, but about a third of the 150,000 who do are special education
students, including children who use wheelchairs. Replacement drivers have been
brought in for some of the affected routes.
The bus companies argued in their NLRB complaint that
they were essentially caught in a dispute between the union and the city.
The workers were angered when the city announced last
month that it could no longer require private companies bidding for transportation
contracts to hire drivers by seniority and protect previous pay rates. That,
and the expiration of the union’s collective bargaining agreement with a
coalition of bus companies in December, prompted the walkout.
Federal law generally prohibits workers from striking
against a secondary employer in order to punish a primary employer, but the
NLRB said that doesn’t apply in this case because both the city and the bus
companies are primary employers.
The chief lawyer for the New York City School Bus
Contractors Coalition, Jeffrey D. Pollack, said he intends to appeal.
“The bus companies will continue to do everything we can
to get the buses rolling so we can get New York City’s school children back to
school safely,” he added.
Comments
Post a Comment