We need a pitcher not a glass of water

[24yrs1181]

Dear Mayor elect De Blasio, PLEASE DONT BE ANOTHER EMPTY SUIT, you needed the working poor of this city to get elected, now in our hour of need WE NEED YOU, here  is just the tip of the iceberg it is all hitting the fan as you look to begin your term as a leader with a progressive edge, we as loyal workers for the children of the city in which you will lead want only to have a hand up not a hand out. As I type this message to you  the city school bus contractors are offering 9000 of us the door if we dont cave in to wages we have not seen since  1970, WE ASK YOU TO HELP US NOW  BEFORE ITS TOO LATE, Written by John Israel dedicated school bus operator for 24 years.

Atlantic Express, one of the major companies providing yellow bus service for New York City school children, has announced that it will cease operations at the end of the year. This comes a month after the company had filed for bankruptcy and sent out provisional layoff notices to 5,500 employees in New York and other cities.

The closure announcement came last Friday, shortly after workers rejected a proposed contract that would have meant a significant cut in wages and benefits, as well as forfeiture of back pay was owed to them.

A company spokeswoman claimed that Atlantic could not meet demands placed on it for financing by Wells Fargo bank without the cuts in labor costs it had demanded. This is the third time that Atlantic Express has gone into bankruptcy. Approximately 2,000 school bus jobs will be lost. Other companies will now bid for Atlantic's routes based on rock bottom conditions for the workers.

The closure of Atlantic Express followed by less than a month plans announced by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city schools chancellor Dennis M. Walcott to put out for rebid contracts for an additional 4,100 school bus routes. This is on top of the 1,100 routes opened for bids earlier this year, which lead to a month-long strike by bus drivers and matrons (attendants). The strike was in response to the city's abrogation of the three-decades-long Employment Protection Provisions (EPP) which allowed workers to keep their jobs, pay, and benefits, whichever private company won the bus route contracts.

Workers' comments posted on the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1181's Facebook page after a membership meeting last Thursday stated that the local's president Michael Cordiello offered no response to the closure of Atlantic Express, merely indicating that he had known the company was headed for bankruptcy.

Other bus companies have already closed and re-opened under different names or used other tactics to break existing contracts and drive down their cost of labor under the new cut-throat environment created by the termination of the EPP.

Local 1181, the ATU and the New York City unions isolated and betrayed the workers, shutting down last winter's strike on the basis of an empty promise from the Democratic mayoral candidates to "revisit" the EPP after the election. In the meantime, contracts for the 1,100 routes were rebid without the EPP protections, allowing the bus companies to lay off workers and cut wages and benefits for those that remained.

It is estimated that approximately 2,000 school bus workers, out of a total of 8,900, have already lost their jobs. Workers report that the companies are eliminating pensions (substituting 401k), medical insurance, vacation and holiday pay, as well as drastically cutting wages.

The city now intends to initiate the same process for an additional 4,100 routes, awarding them to the companies with the lowest bids, meaning that many more workers will lose their jobs or suffer cuts in wages and benefits. Experienced workers are being replaced by cheaper novices, placing school children at risk.

In his announcement, Bloomberg boasted that the rebids would save the city between $210 and $410 million dollars over five years. These savings would be the direct result of pushing the drivers and matrons into poverty.

The union is promoting the idea that the city's Democratic mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, whom it supported in the election race, will abrogate the contracts when he takes office in January. However, de Blasio has given no such assurances and refused to comment on the city's latest announcement.

The illusion peddled by the ATU that de Blasio will reverse Bloomberg's policies is belied by last year's Chicago teachers strike and the BART strike earlier this year in San Francisco, which proved that Democrats will carry out savage attacks on workers with the collaboration of the unions.

The devastating impact of the union's betrayal of the bus workers was illustrated in an article recently published in the New York Times.  which reveals perhaps more than was intended.

[Buzz]

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