A federal labor board ruled this morning that the ongoing 12-day strike by school bus drivers and matrons is not illegal — dashing the hopes of bus companies that sought to end the work stoppage.
The companies filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on Jan. 16, claiming the strike launched by Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union that day was unfairly harming them — even though it was aimed at the city.
“We believe the NLRB’s decision is incorrect and plan an immediate appeal,” said Jeffrey Pollack, chief labor attorney for the New York City School Bus Contractors Coalition. “In the meantime, 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.”
The union’s anger was stoked by the Department of Education when it released bids for bus routes in late December that — for the first time in decades — lacked worker job and seniority protections in the event that new companies were awarded contracts.
But the union has also been trying to get those protections written into its own contracts with the bus companies, which have been under negotiation for months, according to the NLRB decision.
Local 1181’s prior three-year contract with the school bus companies expired December 31.
“Given this primary labor dispute with the [bus companies], we conclude that the union has not violated [federal law] by its strike,” the board ruled this morning.
City DOE officials continued to insist that their agency has nothing to do with the labor dispute, and that the union must settle its differences solely with the bus companies.
Fewer than one-third of school buses have been operational in recent weeks, making it impossible for some wheelchair-bound students to get to school.
About 140,000 kids in kindergarten through sixth grade get yellow busing to public or parochial schools.