School bus drivers who take 165,000 New York City public school students each day have voted to authorize a strike in a dispute with 40 private bus companies.þþThe threatened walkout by 7,000 drivers and bus attendants represents the most serious labor dispute stemming from the city's looming budget crisis.þþAt a meeting Tuesday night, thousands of drivers and attendants voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike, without choosing a specific date for a walkout. The buses carry about 15 percent of the city's 1.1 million public school children each day. About half of those students are in special education.þþSalvatore Battaglia, president of the union, Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said the main issue was the bus companies' insistence that they could not afford a raise for the 3,000 attendants, who help monitor the children.þþBut Peter Silverman, a lawyer for the School Bus Contractors Association, said the companies could not afford raises for the attendants because the companies were already operating at a loss as a result of what he said were inadequate payments from the city.þþÿThe Board of Education reimburses the industry approximately $100 million a year to pay the escorts, but the industry pays the escorts a total of $130 million a year,ÿ Mr. Silverman said. ÿWe've told the union that we cannot provide any increases in compensation for the escorts.ÿþþThe union is asking for raises of 4 percent a year for two years for the drivers and the escorts. The escorts' pay is $332 to $449 a week, while pay for the drivers runs from $532 to $870.þþMr. Battaglia said, ÿThere's no doubt that everybody is hurting, but we just want to maintain what we have.ÿþþKevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the Department of Education, had no comment about the labor dispute.þþ
Source: NY Times
