The union representing New York City's school bus drivers reached a tentative three-year settlement yesterday with 25 bus companies, averting a strike that had threatened to inconvenience 37,000 summer school students starting today.þþThe union, which represents 8,400 bus drivers, escorts and mechanics, declined to give details of the accord, including the size of the wage increase, which was reached four days after the old contract expired.þþThe union had threatened a strike against just a few bus companies, but the New York City School Bus Contractors Coalition warned that if the union was to strike against even one company, then all the companies would lock out their workers.þþSteve Mangione, a spokesman for the union, Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said union leaders were very happy with the pact. ÿThere were no givebacks,ÿ he said.þþJeffrey Pollack, the chief labor lawyer for the bus companies, said: ÿWe feel satisfied. There was some heavy negotiating to get there.ÿþþThe bus companies had originally demanded that the workers begin contributing 1.5 percent of their wages toward their health insurance premiums. þþUnder the union's old contract, the workers paid nothing toward their premiums.þþOne official involved in the talks said that under the tentative agreement, the workers would still not pay health insurance premiums, but in exchange the union had agreed to a lower wage increase than it otherwise would have received.þþThe negotiations took place under unusual conditions. Julius Bernstein, Local 1181's secretary-treasurer, was indicted and arrested two weeks ago, charged with extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from bus companies in exchange for promising not to try to unionize them.þþIn an affidavit accompanying the indictment, an F.B.I. agent said a company owner told him that he began paying Mr. Bernstein after receiving threats and having some bus windows smashed.þþMr. Bernstein was also indicted last summer on charges of extorting money in cooperation with the Genovese crime family. Local 1181's president, Salvatore Battaglia, and the director of its benefits fund, Ann Chiarovano, were also indicted last summer, charged with making false statements about the Genovese family's influence with the union. All three union officials have pleaded not guilty.þþDozens of dissident members of Local 1181 have asked the parent union to place the local in trusteeship. þþÿThey are an embarrassment to the whole labor movement,ÿ Eddie Kaye, a spokesman for the dissident union members, said of the three indicted officials. ÿThey are vulnerable because of the indictments and that enabled the bosses to push them around in the negotiations. We don't want this type of leadership that is crooked.ÿþþA ratification vote is tentatively scheduled in two weeks.þþUnder the old contract, the drivers' wages ranged from $632 to $979 a week, while the escorts' pay ranged from $373 to $505.þþ
Source: NY Times
