We Want Safety for the Children, Contract Justice for the Drivers!

Aug 27, 2018 | News



Download PDF

Veolia Transdev / BPS,
“We Say, No!  Union Busting’s Got To Go!”

Live the 8751 Legacy:
No Concessions, No Way!

When your united, fighting Negotiations Committee started the contract bargaining process for our valuable labor and our families’ well-being last Spring, Transdev and their City sponsors laid down a contract war-proposal that tore up nearly every page, from the Civil Rights and Safety Policy Committees to your bid and grievance rights.   Transdev, which comes to the table with 3 $six-figure lawyers, demanded over 3-dozen brutal concessions that would have literally destroyed 40 years of collective bargaining progress, including Past Practice, 2nd-chance drug & alcohol harm reduction, attacks on Standbys, etc.

Local 8751’s membership, backed 100% by the International, was outraged, filed a 21-count Unfair Labor Charge with the federal government, voted unanimously on June 21st  to authorize a Strike, and waged a massive march from the Washington Street yard on the last Friday of school that ended with a 2 hour occupation of BPS’s Bolling Building HQ, blasting Aretha Franklin’s R.E.S.P.E.C.T from our sound truck, to cheers and fists from the Dudley community.  While drivers, monitors and our allies’ chants shook cushy BPS offices, the Superintendent announced their resignation.

For the next week, 8751’s Committee militantly pounded one concession at a time OUT of the company’s union-busting proposal, culminating in a round-the clock session in School Committee chambers which defeated some of the worst

concessions and ended with an agreement at midnight on Saturday, June 30th which provides full retroactivity to July 1st at final contract ratification, with 48-hour strike notice.

Transdev’s chaotically late and massively Tainted Annual Route Bid represents an ill-thought attempt to slash hours and wages from many of our good members.  Job cuts to Standby positions and Transdev’s negligent failure to upgrade-train monitors and hire new drivers, while continuing to keep many of us on unjust, wasteful suspensions, continues their tactic of trying to squeeze more work out of fewer drivers, using “MIT” routing technology + immoral punishment for our aging, sick, pregnant, immigrant siblings and co-workers who need time to take care of emergencies in their families.

Concessions that must go
Health & Safety
  • Cut 5 minutes from pre & post trip safety checks (20 minutes/day). This austerity concession (wage theft of over $1.5 million/year) = dangerous jeopardy to safety and on-time performance.  We must not allow this clear and present threat to bus safety and timeliness for students.
No price tag on student safety!
  • Abolish our hard-fought, historic language rights to Maternity, Illness & Disability, and Childcare leave. We’ve earned and paid for the right to be human.
Hands Off our sick and elder siblings!
  • Cut & restrict our human and contractual rights to Paid Personal Days.
  • Discipline for DPU license leave, most often caused by medical conditions.
  • Deletion/hand-washing of company/city responsibility and assistance to us for student behavioral problems. Drivers, students, parents, teachers demand:
Trained, caring bus monitors on every bus, now!
  • Intransigent Transdev/City refusal to change CBA pronouns to protect our transgender co-workers and family from harmful job, housing and healthcare discrimination. On November 8th, Vote “YES” on ballot question 3 for equality and against the Trumpists’ discrimination attack.
Driver & Union Rights
  • Deletion of language to stop sub-contracting out OUR WORK. Stop Scab Replacement contracting!  All BPS transportation work (charters, special programs, etc.) is Local 8751 work per Mayor’s signature!
  • Discipline, Discipline, Discipline to replace 40 years of CBA and fair language regarding charter bid rights and “absenteeism”. Enforce current, time-tested charter and report-time language!
  • Bids “at the discretion” of Transdev/BPS and war against driver bid rights. Enforce current CBA bid and seniority rights, now!  Drivers, Sign the Class Action 2018 “Tainted Annual Route Bid” grievance!
  • Longer “investigations” & “discipline files” against drivers, barring union officers from company property, limiting Union access to orientation and drivers paying for their own fingerprinting, etc.
Economic Justice that must come:
  • Stop “MIT” technology attacks on routing and driver pay. Stop complicity with documented, forced re-segregation of Boston Public Schools.  School Choice, Safe & On-Time Transportation for Parents and Students is a Right!  Pay for every minute of work for drivers and monitors is a Right!  Cost-of-Living in Boston Pay Raise, Now!  Affordable, Best-Available Health Care and Disability Income is a Right for All!  $$Millions for Schools and School Workers, Not for Amazon, Gillette, gentrifying Developers, jails, Wynn Casinos and Transdev mega-profits!
  • Let Our People Go! with Dignity and Security, Now! All drivers in their upper 60’s, 70’s and 80’s who have served the children of Boston for decades have a Right to Retirement with Dignity and Affordable Benefits, Now!