Situational Updates - Status Report!
Posted 12/09/99 VICTORY!
Victory! The Union ratified Laidlaw's 2nd last best and final offer today with over 85% of those voting to approve. Working with the mayor's office and the school district seems to have helped Laidlaw broaden its' horizons. Additionally, The Mayors Office is now well aware of the still pending issues regarding the Fairfax Yard (click here). Other issues brought to the mayor's attention were those regarding the school districts contracting with non-union transportation companies. These companies in many cases use non-conforming vehicles and the drivers frequently do not have detailed background checks done. Hopefully, the school district will work with us to keep this work performed by legitimate San Francisco school bus drivers.
12/03/99
There were two meeting with the Mayor Brown and Laidlaw this week. At the last meeting, yesterday, the company made some concessions. Laidlaw offered to guarantee us 120 (approximately half) 35 hour routes, without the stipulation of weekend work - Note: the details of these will be mentioned later. Full retroactivity was granted and the initial raises to the office staff and dispatchers were maintained. Laidlaw stuck to its' guns regarding the insurance contribution increases (more than doubling our share). Additionally, the school district seemed willing to work with us in conceding more work to our drivers instead of other outfits - details of this also to follow later. We used to do more of this work and believe certified school bus drivers should drive school children to their activities in safer conforming school buses. There will be an upcoming ratification vote on Laidlaws' latest proposal - coming soon.
11/26/99
The Mayor intervened in negotiations today (click here for article) and will mediate further dealings with Laidlaw. The strike for December 9th is called off until this mediation takes it course. The rally is still on for December 29th - it will be a celebration instead - Please Come!
11/24/99
Instead of a thanksgiving bonus or a turkey from the company (we never receive these items anyway), the drivers received a nice note attached to their paychecks (click here). On its face the letter looks 'somewhat' reasonable. However, if you are familiar with the issues you will realize that the truth has been distorted in the company's favor. Items marked in parenthesis refer to notes at the bottom of the page indicating another side of the story.
11/22/99
The company finally gave its last best and final offer (on 11/19/99). We did make some gains, but nothing of any real significance compared to the last contract. What we gained was offset by the increase in insurance costs that the company wants to levy on over 250 employees. For the vast majority of the workforce (about 95%) this proposal is a takeaway relative to the contract that expired in June. In a time where the cost of living in this city has skyrocketed, the company still wants to offset its cost on workers. Additionally, Laidlaw did nothing to address the reduction in our work hours. Rejection of this proposal was sanctioned by a 90% vote. Hopefully laidlaw will be resonable so that any work actions can be avoided. We are scheduled to have a one day work stoppage on December 1st.
11/19/99
The bus-yard swarmed with media today. News people from WB20, Channel 2, Channel 5,
Channel 26-ATSF and Channel 14-Univision were present as well as other journalists. A public information sheet was distributed with a tentative work stoppage date of December 1st. The union also has set another rally date for Monday November 29th, 5:00 p.m.- see announcements. Laidlaw also contacted the union to reopen negotiations. There will be a session tonight at the federal mediators office - hopefully some progress will be made.
11/15/99
The vote to authorize the committee to proceed with a work action, including a temporary or protracted strike was held. The results were as follows: 1) Drivers - 207 in favor, 8 against (96 percent in favor) 2) Dispatchers and Office Workers - 8 in favor, 3 against (73 percent in favor) 3) Yard Workers - 5 in favor, 0 against (100%). The motion was required to carry a two thirds majority (66%) - it passes. The Union will give at least 5 days notice before any action is taken.
11/12/99
Emergency Union Meeting. The union discussed in detail the final meeting with the company. Many emotional statements were given to a packed house. The decision to proceed with a strike vote on Monday 11/15/99 was unanimous. A straw poll held with about 170 attending indicated a unanimous agreement to proceed with a work action. To be as sensitive to the community as possible ample notice will be given - at least 5 days to affected parties - before any work action is taken. We have tried everything reasonable to persuade Laidlaw to forgo their plans to cut our wages and benefits and to recognize and help repair the damage they have done to our membership though cuts in hours and lost work - they are not listening.
11/11/99
This was the last negotiation session scheduled with the company. They have not seriously addressed our concerns of lost hours and income and continue to offer us contract take-aways. We Started negations in June, it has been six months and we have been working without a contract since August. The Major issues left on the bargaining table Friday evening were: 1) Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) 2) 35 Hour Weekly Guarantee for a reasonable amount of the Drivers 3) Reasonable Increased Wages for the office staff and dispatchers (a handful of personnel).
1) This union has been receiving COLA since 1976. COLA is not a raise it is a small percentage increase in our wages designed to keep up with the skyrocketing costs of living in the bay area. In actuality, COLA is insufficient for San Francisco as it fails to consider the exacerbated increase in housing costs. The company has put forth the idea of Customer Increase (CI) instead of COLA. CI is tied to what the customer (school district) pays Laidlaw. If the contract goes up by 5% then the drivers receive a 5% raise or something like that. This would leave our union very vulnerable because if Laidlaw negotiated a decrease then we would take a cut in pay. Thus Laidlaw could negotiate a deal to strangle our union - we cannot accept this. Additionally Laidlaw is only offering less than half of this year's allotted COLA amount. Shame on you Laidlaw!
2) The average route time for a driver is about 6.1-6.2 hours a day and the average driver manages to work about 6.7 hours a day (33.5 hours a week) via combining extra work details. The average salary last year was in the low $20Ks. Many Drivers have to commute such that the majority of their day, generally at least 10 hours is spent in the vicinity of the workplace. The break in the middle of the day is not really flexible enough to accommodate other work options. Over the last 5 years (life of the last contract) many drivers have lost about 25% of their income because of Laidlaws' cutbacks (Most drivers were able to work 8 hour days). We acknowledge that changes in routing, school bell times and other reasons have contributed to this. However we also know that Laidlaw has pocketed the extra money they saved, which the school district paid, with total disregard for the devastation it has reaped upon our union. We have requested over the years, that they improve their charter business, possibly advertise or hire a charter person - they have refused. Instead the company opened another Yard, we believe in violation of our contract, to pursue this business (see Fairfax Yard - Click Here). We have asked for a modest 35 hour weekly guarantee to help compensate us. We know the work is out there, Laidlaw is not interested in helping us. They did have one proposal: if our members were willing to be on call 7 days a week and give up many of their seniority rites they would guarantee 35 hours a week for about one third of the drivers - how generous. One of our negotiators reminded the company about labor history and the fight to have weekends available for family and others activities outside of ones commitment to their employer e.g. living ones life.
3) After months of pulling teeth Laidlaw finally agreed to raise the dispatchers' and office workers' meager salaries, although not to the level we had asked for. Initially they tried to divide us with statements such as 'if we give these individuals more money then that means less for the drivers.' We reminded them about their stock market earnings and how much they reaped from the school district. During this negotiating session, before the company walked out on negotiations, their lead negotiator turned towards the dispatcher representative and said, 'if the union did not settle then everything is off the table including all increases offered to this point (only dispatchers and office workers were offered any increase the rest of the vast majority of the union was offered decreases).' This was clearly an effort to divide us. - It Won't Work!
During the end of this final negotiating session the company also stated that if we did not settle then all retroactivity for increase (COLA mostly) would not be paid either - does this seem reasonable? Additionally, to add insult to injury, the company would like us to increase our heath benefit contributions. Their argument is that our co-payment is low for the industry. My thoughts are, well other workers should pay less then - this argument is always ignored - oh well.
Summary: As it stands Laidlaw has not bargained fairly or showed any modicum of legitimate concern for the financial crisis that has plagued our union during the period of the last contract. In a time in which costs of living in this area are skyrocketing, Laidlaw wants us to take cuts and give up the pittance of financial security we do have. They don't care about us, they don't care about our families, they don't care about our communities or the children of this city. All that matters to Laidlaw is the bottom line. We cannot allow this to happen. We have done all that can be reasonably expected. We tried everything to avoid any type of work action which could impact the children and families of this city, we are left with no options. We will not let Laidlaw continue to reduce us to a fly-by-night workforce - Please, Please support us!
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