Union school bus drivers, monitors and aides call on RIDE to protect their wage standards and job protections from non-union company
"School bus jobs should not be treated as throwaway jobs. Parents and children deserve the best service possible, and workers deserve the best possible working conditions and standards..."
Amid an ongoing nationwide staffing shortage, union bus drivers, monitors, and aides and their unions are calling on Rhode Island’s Department of Education (RIDE) to protect employees and students by not allowing a new company to undermine their rights, wage standards, and job protections that have been established through legally binding union contracts.
Since March 2024, RIDE has continued courting a mostly non-union company, DATTCO, as the potential replacement for the First Student statewide bus contract on a significant number of statewide bus runs. DATTCO is offering wages and benefits that are significantly below the majority of current union contracts. If RIDE gives the current assignment of unionized yards to the lower-paid contractor, workers may be forced to receive unnecessary pay cuts and benefit changes.
Additionally, DATTCO is actively trying to recruit workers from their union employer by sending text messages offering $3,000 in bonuses if workers abdicate their union. “We have worked hard with First Student through union negotiations to ensure a decent industry wage standard and benefits to not only attract new employees but to also retain the highest quality professionals in the industry to help our employer meet their contractual obligations. Now, DATTCO employees have reached out to many of our members, trying to poach and entice with sign-on bonuses and even scare tactics,” said Lorene Hamel, a First Student Bus Driver who has worked in the Lincoln bus yard for 11 years. 1199 SEIU represents this location.
School bus drivers, monitors and aides transport Rhode Island’s most precious cargo daily, getting our kids to school safely and on time. They play a critical role in both our state’s education system and economy by allowing parents to get to work knowing their children are safe. While there has been a nationwide shortage of school bus employees, many left the industry during the pandemic for being at high risk and largely haven't returned, exacerbating the staffing shortage. Lowering working standards is not the solution to staffing problems.
Recently, DATTCO announced it needs 150 more drivers, aides, and monitors before the summer starts when routes increase for special education students who go to school 52 weeks a year. If they can’t fill the positions by June, DATTCO warns it may need to consolidate or cut the 150 routes they have planned. The last thing parents need to worry about is how their children will get to school each day.
DATTCO has publicly admitted they don’t have enough drivers to do the work and have discussed combining routes, which causes confusion and is frowned upon in the industry. “RIDE should not put dollars before safety,” said Mike McDermott, a First Student Bus Driver who has worked at Cranston Metro for 15 years. 1199 SEIU represents this location.
The current First Student contracts include the affiliated unions of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, including Teamsters Local 251, 1199 SEIU, LiUNA Locals 808,1033 and 1322, UFCW Local 328, AFSCME Council 94, and ATU Local 618 which represents 70 percent of the 2,500 workers employed as school bus drivers, monitors and aides in Rhode Island.
“This is an important issue not only here in Rhode Island, but potentially nationally. Rhode Island has been a leader in recognizing the value that school bus workers bring to our communities and our families, many of whom live and work in the same communities. School bus jobs should not be treated as throwaway jobs. Parents and children deserve the best service possible, and workers deserve the best possible working conditions and standards,” said Matthew Taibi, Principal Officer of Teamsters Local 251 and Director of Passenger Transportation Division for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The affiliated unions of the RI AFL-CIO are calling on RIDE to “require any new company that is awarded these contracts to accept our employment, our union, and our standards with no impact or change to frontline employees or those we serve.”
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Vanessa Pendergast was the last child in Rhode Island to be hit and killed by her school bus. Drivers and monitors and aides are essential jobs and should be protected. In the years before Vanessa died there were several kids killed every year…and not one since. Her parents, Sophia and Bill, worked tirelessly to make riding a school bus safe.
If these are throw away jobs, then our kids are also throw away, a policy choice.