One day we will celebrate a victory. School bus workers, Teamsters and Kossacks will cheer and there will be much back slapping and high fiveing.
That day will be marked by a decision by First Student to stop violating its own Neutrality Policy and stop intimidating, harassing and manipulating its school bus workers to prevent them from organizing and voting to decide whether to join a union or not.
That day, the President of First Student (Mr. Carey Paster in photo) will call the Directors of First Group in the UK (his bosses) and tell them that after all, he was wrong and that he will now follow the example of the UK based parent company and allow school bus workers to join unions to engage in collective bargaining.
So follow me below the fold. The elements of a possible organizing tactic involving Kossacks and other bloggers are starting to emerge.
But first let me get your blood pressure up. This from the fools at The American Spectator;
Labor's primary problem last year was that it attempted to arrive on its own terms. Look at all we've done and how indispensable we are, labor tried to say. This is not a message Kossacks have the slightest interest in. Show up, kiss the ring, look deep into their eyes longingly and tell them you've never met anyone like them. Snuggle up to their collective electronic ear and whisper how ecstatic you are they're running the show now. This is what they want. And Hoffa? He turned out to be a real crowd pleaser.
"A lot of you don't know anybody in the labor movement," Jimmy Hoffa told Kossacks. "But that is why we're meeting today, so we can start getting to know each other....You are the voice that has come up and risen out of nowhere. The new voice of America."
Hey, if Democratic presidential candidates are groveling, why shouldn't the ever-weakening heads of Big Labor? Forget puffing out your union chests and trying to regale computer kids with tales of union glory you yourself can barely recall. Hoffa's crew and the other unions, like the Democrats, have learned their lesson. Sorry, Teamsters, Kossacks don't want a flash drive with downloadable union stats on it. But T-shirts reading Working Class Blogger? That's more like it. Gimmicky dog and pony show type stuff like Take Your Picture With A Teamsters Truck? Even better. Very popular.
Thank you The American Spectator for motivating us to redouble our efforts. By the way, one of the first things we asked from our Teamster partners was facts and figures. We ARE their worst nightmare.
Last week in Princeton, NJ, the Teamsters conducted the 1st Workers Congress for the School Bus Workers United, a Teamster organization.
Here is TeamsterPower’s live blog diary;
Human Beings Should Have the Right to Toilet Paper - Live Blogging Workers Congress
These are some of the things voiced by school bus workers from around the country;
• "Workers having to relieve themselves without bathrooms between routes."
• "Can't stand how company attacks people who are afraid of them."
• "I'm tired of not having any money."
• "The kids are the paramount thing, they are the most important thing."
• "Health benefits. People going back and forth to work in pain, because they can't afford medical care."
• "Not having a voice in the workplace. Being told you do not have a right to have a say."
• "I was driving a bus for 18 years and was fired by FirstStudent for speaking out."
• "Drivers not recognized for their years of service. I know some drivers with 20 years in and being paid the same amount as drivers who just started."
• "Toilet paper. The company has taken the toilet tissue out of all the restrooms and you have to go to the office and ask for three or four sheets."
• "Favoritism is rampant at First Student."
• "This company earns hundreds of millions of dollars every year and they fight us every step of the way."
• "Why can't they fix the buses, why can't they pay the drivers?"
• "What worries me is when they take parts off a good bus to get a bad bus past inspection. I would not put my kids on a first student bus."
• "One bus was retrofitted to secure a wheel chair. But the bus leaked, and every time it rained that little girl in the wheelchair was rained on. We told them for months that this girl was being rained on, and they didn't give a crap."
Proposed Tactic
The Teamsters are focusing on certain cities and geographies as we speak. Their challenge is to contact the local bus workers and try to present their case for them to vote for a union and to conduct free elections.
These are the current places where school bus worker organizing by the Teamsters is taking place; Seattle, Las Vegas, Hotchkins Ill., Savanna Ga., Ellsworth Me, Augusta Me., Lawnside NJ, Monmouth Junction NJ and Trenton NJ
But this organizing is made very difficult by the union busting tactics of First Student such as;
• Firing anyone who is identified as a possible union sympathizer
• Playing favorites with those who oppose unions by giving them raises, bonuses and easier routes
• Not allowing employees to work overtime because they engaged in union activity
• Threatening with reprisals if any worker dares to start something
• Lying about unions in general and the Teamsters in particular during scheduled indoctrination meetings with workers
• Preventing Teamster union organizers from meeting with workers
• Prohibiting employees from distributing pro-union literature in nonwork areas of the facility when on nonwork time
So here is the new tactic we should think through and then put into effect if it makes sense;
Let’s give Kossacks and other bloggers materials and enough information so that they can do the following sorts of things;
• Walk into the school bus after their kids are picked up and say something and give a pamphlet to the school bus driver to help them get a different point of view from the one hammered by First Student and to show the school bus drivers that parents support their cause because happier drivers are better for the kids they transport every day.
• Attend PTA’s and School District meetings and ask questions and table resolutions to counteract the union-busting tactics of First Student.
• Approach local politicians and local media with useful information to level the playing field now horribly tilted in favor of First Student management.
• In general help local Teamster representatives in their efforts to contact local school bus drivers in a manner not to jeopardize their jobs.
The idea is to open a new front to complicate the union busting tactics of First Union. We need your comments on this proposed tactic.
We also need volunteers in these regions where the Teamsters are active today.
To volunteer for the School Bus Worker Project or to subscribe to our upcoming newsletter write us what you would like to do at;
Schoolbusworkers(at)yahoo(dot)com
This is not the last tactic we will try to implement but we think that it may provide the margin of victory in some places. Enough battles won and we may change the mind of First Student management.
We are also exploring several out of the box tactics too. Some aimed at higher levels of the battlefield. But I think this one is worth trying. What do you think?
This week I will meet with school bus drivers who have successfully unionized to get their story. I encourage all Kossacks to reach out and establish person to person contacts with school bus workers anywhere and tell us what you find out.