Wanted and Found: Union Drivers

By Clyde Weiss

Facing privatization, a group of New York school bus drivers and their dynamic union mounted a public offensive — and won.

JOHNSTOWN, NEW YORK

First came rumors of privatization. They were hard to believe. After all, the bus drivers employed by the Greater Johnstown School District, in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, had long provided the kind of service that parents appreciated. A group of the drivers had even been honored by the district's insurance carrier for building a record of more than 75 years of accident-free driving.

So, when school officials hinted during the summer of 2001 that the district was considering contracting out bus transportation, the drivers, represented by the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000, realized they had to act — fast. In the ensuing months, they proved that a highly motivated group of union members could save their jobs by working together and using their imagination.

The district's superintendent thought he had good reasons to turn to a contractor. At one point, only nine full-time drivers were available to handle 13 runs, plus hundreds of trips to extra-curricular events. The district had placed want-ads in the local newspaper, but they failed to attract applicants. Some runs had to be called off.

"This is a big football town," says CSEA Greater Johnstown School District Unit Pres. Judy Loucks, a senior library typist for the district. "When you start canceling football games [for lack of bus transportation], parents are not real happy."

Neither were the drivers, who feared losing their jobs to a private contractor. Among them was Corey Barber, who has since been promoted to a transportation coordinator. He said he was "unsettled" by the thought of being privatized, even if he was offered another job by the privateer. "I was pretty sure it would be for less pay and benefits."

SEEKING SOLUTIONS. Early in 2002, Loucks, Barber and district officials began meeting to figure out how to recruit drivers. It wouldn't be easy: License requirements, drug tests, fingerprint screening and continued certification classes apparently discouraged potential applicants. "Some people don't want to be bothered going through all that," says Loucks. "They just want a job — now."

Barber, selected to be the drivers' spokesman, proposed forming a transportation committee to find a solution, made up of representatives of the board, the drivers and the community. At first, he was "totally ignored." The drivers also suggested that the district more aggressively search for drivers, and another ad was run. But it failed to advertise free training or provide details of the union-negotiated wages and benefits. Like an unbaited fishhook, it lured no applicants.

Then, one spring day, Loucks picked up the newspaper and saw yet another ad. Shockingly, it solicited private bidders to take over regular bus runs. "I was pretty P.O.'d," Loucks recalls. "I couldn't understand why they weren't working with us."

The drivers gathered signatures from parents and crafted flyers for the community. The union also placed its own half-page ad in the local newspaper, it's banner declaring: "The Bus Stops Here!" Beneath it, the union extolled the district's "caring, conscientious bus drivers," and noted the dangers of contracting out, including the loss of local control. "What we wanted," says Barber, "was a public outcry, saying, 'We don't want to get somebody in here we don't know.'"

The drivers also spoke out at district board meetings. Keeping their cool, they won the public's support. On the night of June 24, the drivers' campaign reached its climax. With more than two dozen CSEA members crowding into the Johnstown High School cafeteria — and members of the community speaking up for them — the board of education voted 6-2 against contracting out.

DRIVERS STILL WANTED. Still short three full-time drivers, the district again ran a want-ad in a local paper. So did the union — but CSEA took out a prominent "block ad," separate from the regular ads, and ran it in the Sunday editions of several area newspapers. It detailed union-negotiated starting salaries and benefits, and also noted that the district would provide free training. Applications soon started coming in.

It helped that privatization was now off the table, says Barber. "Why would someone want to apply at a place that was going to be defunct through contracting-out?" he asks. "Once it got into the paper that they were keeping transportation in-house, things started happening."

As of this writing, the district has 12 full-time drivers and nine substitutes. Only one run remains unassigned. And, according to Loucks, privatization is a "dead issue." She credits the drivers' success to their non-confrontational attitude: "It made the board members listen to what we had to say — that we were willing to work with them if they gave us that chance."

Barber agrees, and offers this suggestion to other unions facing privatization: "Don't dwell on the negativity of contracting out. You want to gain public support. If you're negative, the public's not going to support you." He adds that "You've got to work together, keep the faith and continue doing the right thing — which means doing your job every day the way it's supposed to be done — and people are going to recognize that."

It's a lesson the bus drivers of the Greater Johnstown School District will not forget.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee... bus drivers seeking union representation are dealing with privatization in another way. In that city, where school bus services have been private for many years, 140 drivers employed by Lamers Bus Lines recently voted 2 to 1 to join Council 48. Since May 2001, when AFSCME began dealing with the workers at several Milwaukee companies, about 40 percent of their labor force has elected to form a union with us.