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May 1, 2008

S. Kingstown bus drivers vote to go strike, pending offer

SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- The union representing the district’s bus drivers has voted to go on strike Monday, if the bus company doesn’t present them with a new contract proposal by tomorrow night, according to the shop steward.

The strike vote came last night when Teamsters Local 251, at a meeting at the American Legion hall, rejected a contract proposal from DATTCO, the bus company, 29 to 17, said Tracie Warren, the steward.

“No one wants to do this, obviously,” Warren said. “If it has to be done, it has to be done.”

Cliff Gibson, senior vice president and chief operating officer at DATTCO, did not return a phone call immediately.

Supt. Robert Hicks said today that he had been assured by Teamsters representative, Brian Carroll, that the drivers would not strike as long as talks were under way and that he’d been told the union had forwarded DATTCO a proposal this morning.

“I am hoping and expecting that people will keep talking and that reasonable heads will prevail and the education of our children will not be disrupted,” he said.

Warren said she was not aware of such conversations, repeating that the union representing 36 drivers and 26 aides and monitors had voted to strike.

Hicks said he would keep parents informed through the telephone alert system. He added that he had received calls that drivers of the district’s 42 buses had told children about their intentions to strike. Hicks objected to students being used to communicate the drivers’ positions.

-- Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney

According to Warren, a major sticking point was that DATTCO presented them with a four-year deal, when a majority of members did not want to enter into a contract longer than three years.

They also sought an unpaid personal day and a paid snow day, and to contribute to their retirement plans, she said. Their 401K accounts were frozen when members voted to unionize in 2002, she said. They have not been able to contribute to their retirement since.

“We’d like to contribute to our retirement,” Warren said. “We’re looking for respect from the company. We just feel we don’t receive respect.”

While DATTCO’s proposal brought local salaries more in line with neighboring town, it still came in slightly shy of other districts, she said. She criticized DATTCO for being willing to pay fill-in drivers more than its full-time drivers.

She attributed the driver shortages the district has experienced in the past year to low wages and paltry benefits being offered by the company. The contract proposal would not have given raises to its new drivers for a year, she said.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:08 PM | Permalink

May 1, 2008

S. Kingstown bus drivers vote to go strike, pending offer

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