New York City’s school bus strike enters its third day Friday.
It pits the city’s need to rein in spiraling costs against the bus drivers’ goal of preserving their jobs.
The city contracts with private bus companies. It says the city must seek competitive bids to save money. But Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union wants the new contracts to include job protections for current drivers.
Just 152,000 of New York City’s 1.1 million public schoolchildren ride yellow school buses. But the cost of busing students has risen from $100 million in 1979 to $1.1 billion now.
(Source: NBC New York)
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2 Responses
Updates as to the progress of any negotiations have been extremely scarce. All anyone knows is that there is a strike, but what’s the status today? Is there an end in sight? Most schools have no bus service on Monday anyway, due to the legal holiday, so they have until Tuesday to work out a deal, and not cause any more hardship…
Of course the needs of the unions and even the workers supersedes the needs the children and even the welfare of the city while ALL other citizens of the city have felt the effects of the economy. How can the city possibly guarantee these jobs when even hospitals had to close, Fire houses had to close, huge corporations closed, doctors, nurses, lawyers, accountants are out of work, but bus drivers and bus monitors should have job guarantees? Does this make sense to anyone?