110102 Bus workers' beef

RECORD REVIEW  Editorial

Lakeland Schools last year placed an ad in the PennySaver offering to pay $19.23 an hour for new bus drivers. So it's no wonder school bus drivers, mechanics and monitors are complaining so vocally here in Bedford. By an overwhelming margin, the workers last week rejected a tentative contract made between their union and Baumann & Sons Buses Inc., which provides service for Bedford Central School District.

Drivers say they want higher hourly wages than Baumann is offering. Under the tentative contract they rejected in a 62-12 vote, starting pay for drivers the first year of the contract would be $15.63 an hour. The wages are not good, the benefits are even worse, and a sweetener Baumann has added to the deal - to increase wages sooner under a multi-year contract - amounts to a ripened carrot dangling from a 50-foot stick. Why? Because the wages are so lousy up front that few drivers are expected to stick around long enough to reach the proposed maximum pay of $19.27 in four years. Baumann knows that. So do the workers.

Lakeland, by the way, also uses Baumann. So why the wage discrepancy? Here's the shaky logic by which the 92 Bedford workers are supposed to abide: "When you look at the overall costs of various bus contracts in the area, they're better in some places, they're worse in some places, they're in between in some places. It's very complex," said Marc Portnoy, contract negotiator for Baumann. "There's a lot of variables, and the fact of the matter is nothing changes overnight. Things change over time."

That Baumann contracts are better in some places and worse in other places - most notably in Bedford - is clearly not a circumstance the Bedford workers are willing to ignore. Nor should they. They went on a two-day wildcat strike in September. Seventy of the 91 workers signed a petition to get rid of their union, Teamsters Local 456, which throughout the negotiations has appeared more concerned about appeasing Baumann than appeasing its own members. After all, the drivers have publicly stated they seek wages that are not even as high as Lakeland's - but higher than what Baumann, by whatever logic, is willing to give. Clearly, Baumann needs to look within and find a way to bring some consistency and fairness to its various bus contracts in the area. And clearly, Teamsters needs to give it up. Quit the tough talk, the oppressive, hard-knuckled "shape-ups." The Bedford workers no longer want their services. The workers said they will form their own union, to be called Bedford Drivers Alliance. So let them go.

One bright note from this whole mess is that district parents we've talked to - who by the way have the most to lose by disruptions in bus service - sympathize with the workers, who make about $20,000 a year. That's amazing, considering that when the drivers went on strike, 4,250' public school and 750 private school students went without busing. No one we know spoke harshly against the workers themselves, which is something Baumann should keep in mind. We urge Baumann to bend more and be done with the matter. We also urge the workers, meanwhile, to hold to their word to refrain from going on strike again.