The looming school bus drivers strike will not be settled with talks – but simply by the union backing off from its threats, city officials said this morning.
Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott insisted their hands are tied as far as reinserting job protection provisions into recently-released yellow busing contract bids.
Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union has been demanding that the decades-old protections remain in place – even though a court deemed them illegal in 2011.
“There’s nothing to negotiate,” said Walcott. “The New York State Court of Appeals indicated that the employee protection program they want included is illegal.”
The protections require any bus company that wins a new contract with the city to hire the employees of the companies that lose their contracts – in order of seniority and at the same rate of pay.
The city says the provision is the main reason why its yellow busing costs have skyrocketed to a whopping $1.1 billion per year.
Union leaders have warned of a potential strike since the city put out bids for school bus routes without the job protections in late December – but they have declined to put a timetable on their plans.
“It’s the unknown that is really making me angry,” Walcott said during an appearance at East Bronx Academy for the Future. “It’s in the hands of the union and they’re really holding our children hostage as far as what their plans will be.”
A spokeswoman for local 1181 said the union is planning to give enough notice in the event of a strike to allow parents and students to make alternate transportation arrangements to and from school.
More than 150,000 public and parochial school students – including 54,000 with special needs – get yellow bus service daily.
City officials said students would get MetroCards or their parents would be reimbursed for the cost of transporting them if yellow bus service grinds to a halt.
Union officials insist the 2011 court ruling, which stemmed from contracts for busing kids in pre-kindergarten, does not apply to the current bids – which are for kids in kindergarten through the middle school grades.
Asked about that stance, Walcott said, “If they feel that way then they have a right to sue, not strike.”