A school bus strike that threatens to strand 152,000 children is likely to begin on Wednesday — and could be announced as early as tomorrow, sources told The Post.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 has already printed strike posters, assigned members to future picket lines at bus yards across the city, and distributed a list of “do’s and don’ts” for conduct during a strike, sources said.
Members will not have to take any additional action this week to initiate a strike because a May vote pre-authorized it.
The city has been anticipating the strike, and has announced contingency plans that include handing out MetroCards to students and parents.
Where public transit is not available, private drivers and taxi or car service would be reimbursed. All field trips will be cancelled, but after-school programs would remain open.
Some predict chaos will ensue outside schools as many parents idle and jockey for parking during arrival and dismissal times.
“Mornings at schools will be bad but afternoons will be much worse,” an insider said.
But the city said it’s ready.
“The union could strike at any moment and at a moment’s notice and that is why the City has been taking the threat of a strike seriously and communicating with parents and schools,” said Department of Education spokeswoman Erin Hughes, who said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott will give an update tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at Tweed Courthouse.
Parents said the strike will hit them—in the pocketbook
“I will be one of those parents that will either pay for a cab and hope the city pays me back, or I can’t work and just have to stay home with my son,” said Mona Davids, who said her home in the Bronx isn’t near public transportation.
Of the kids riding yellow buses, 52,000 are special needs kids — like Davids son Eric, 4. “I was hoping they would work something out,” she said.
But not all parents are against a strike.
“We want these people to be happy and live well and be content with their jobs — because these are our children,’ said West Harlem resident Miriam Aristy-Farer.
Staging the strike on Wednesday should give parents enough time to prepare and make arrangements, insiders said. If the strike proceeds, Tuesday afternoon will be the yellow buses last run.
The union, comprised of 9,000 drivers, mechanics and escorts, is battling the city to retain employee protection provisions in case a yellow-bus company they work for loses its contract with the city.
Those protections — in place since 1979 but ruled illegal in a 2011 court decision — enabled senior people at a jilted bus company to get hired by the winning bidder.
Additional reporting by Gary Buiso