The city has nixed a plan by the school bus workers’ union that would have returned drivers and matrons to yellow buses right away, officials said this morning.
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 head honcho Michael Cordiello said he asked the Mayor to postpone the opening of bids that are due on new yellow bus contracts in mid-February, in exchange for an immediate halt to the 10-day-old bus strike.
His union asked for a 60- to 90-day delay so that the union, bus companies and city could sit down to discuss ways to lower busing costs other than by eliminating job protections for drivers and matrons.
“[Mediator] Judge Milton Mollen brought this to the City’s people…and the idea was rejected,” Cordiello said at a press conference in Chelsea. “We don’t know why.”
City Hall officials panned the union’s idea as a transparent attempt to keep the same, costly bus contracts in place for as long as possible.
The city currently spends $1 billion per year on school-age busing contracts.
It was the removal of job protections from upcoming contracts that launched the union strike on Jan. 16.
“Postponing the bids would guarantee that the same billion-dollar contracts we have now stay in place next year,” said mayoral spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua. “The union is irresponsibly holding our students and City hostage over issues that can only be resolved by negotiating directly with the bus companies.”
She maintained that the only discussions that need to take place are between bus contractors and the union.
But ATU International President Larry Hanley insisted the city should come to the table to discuss inefficiencies in school bus transportation that can only be resolved among all three parties.
He said costs have spiraled because of an increase in special education students, federal mandates and changes to after-school and other programs.
“The costs that are driving [up] the school busing are not high-salaried workers,” he said.