Dozens of striking school-bus workers jeered fellow bus drivers — and threatened to pelt the “rats” with cheese — simply for reporting to work at a Staten Island bus depot yesterday.
The non-striking drivers had been blocked from running their yellow-bus routes for eight days because the required special-education matrons on their buses belong to the striking Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181.
To bypass the work stoppage, half the drivers at Staten Island Bus Co. were trained in CPR and other safety protocols that allowed them to serve as matrons — but they were called “scabs” and compared to vermin for their efforts.
“We have a job to do, we have to get the kids to school here,” said Patrick Cerniglia, general manager for the company, which is a subsidiary of bus contractor Atlantic Express. “We are proud they stepped up and did the job that they did today.”
Half the drivers of United Service Workers Local 355 worked as matrons, so only 60 of the company’s roughly 120 buses made their routes.
Still, those buses were met with heckles from more than 50 picketers — who questioned the adequacy of the matron training amid calls to “throw cheese” at the rats.
“These drivers received totally inadequate training. Matrons train for 20 hours; Yesterday the city sent these guys for 4-hour training with a video,” said John Scotto, 47, a fifth-year driver and member of Local 1181.
“They can put you on an ambulance and call you a paramedic — but you’re not a paramedic.”
A Department of Education spokeswoman said the agency has certified 49 drivers and 200 matrons since the strike was launched on January 16.
She said 85 more buses left depots than a day earlier because of the new certifications — which she said include standard safety protocols.
The added rides included one that took Staten Island 10-year-old Samuel Alfaro between his Port Richmond home and PS 52 in Dongan Hills for the first time in two weeks.
His sister said that because of the family’s challenges in getting the wheelchair-bound boy to school, he’d been stuck at home with little to do but play video games.
“It’s hard to take him to school because of the wheelchair,” said the 18-year-old sister, Rocio Alfaro. “We can’t take him on the bus.”
Less than 30 percent of school-age yellow buses have been running for the duration of the strike, although attendance at special education schools hit a strike-high 73 percent yesterday.
Local 1181 initiated the work stoppage after the city removed long-standing job protections from bids for contracts that will cover 1,100 routes starting in the fall.
The city operates roughly 7,000 school-age bus routes, including at private and parochial schools.
City officials said they’re looking to cut costs on the $1 billion school bus operation, and were precluded from maintaining the job protections because of a 2011 court ruling.
At a budget hearing in Albany, Chancellor Walcott was asked by legislators to give them an idea of when the bruising strike would end.
“When the union decides to come back to work,” he said.