School Bus Drivers Walk Off Job in Boston, Only 30 out of 650 operational - Polidicks

[QUOTE]BOSTON — School bus drivers here took parents and city officials by surprise Tuesday morning with a work stoppage that left thousands of the city’s 33,000 school children stranded at home or at bus stops. Some children were driven to school by their parents. In some cases, Boston police officers in their patrol cars and vans picked up students who were stranded at bus stops and drove them to school. It was not clear how many students made it to school on Tuesday; about 30 of the city’s 650 buses continued to operate. While city officials, who called the strike illegal, expressed hope early Tuesday that they could resolve it in time for buses to take the children home in the afternoon, that hope quickly faded and city officials said they would seek an injunction ordering drivers back to work by Wednesday morning. Officials canceled all after-school athletic events.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/us/school-bus-drivers-walk-off-job-in-boston.html?_r=0"]Source[/URL]

Yay! No school!

Cancelling all after-school athletic events. It has nothing to do with the buses because parents pick up the kids, but the school system just wants everyone in the area to connect "school bus work stoppage" with "my kid isn't having fun/I have to spend time with my child" and get pissed. The drivers should have informed everyone that they weren't going to work on this day, though. People need to be able to plan on how to get their children to school, imagine all of the kids who's parents locked the front door as they left to go to work and just assumed that their child would be picked up.

[QUOTE=willer;42459587]Cancelling all after-school athletic events. It has nothing to do with the buses because parents pick up the kids, but the school system just wants everyone in the area to connect "school bus work stoppage" with "my kid isn't having fun/I have to spend time with my child" and get pissed. .[/QUOTE] Not really. A lot of after school events depend on busses for transportation.

[QUOTE=willer;42459587]Cancelling all after-school athletic events. It has nothing to do with the buses because parents pick up the kids, but the school system just wants everyone in the area to connect "school bus work stoppage" with "my kid isn't having fun/I have to spend time with my child" and get pissed. The drivers should have informed everyone that they weren't going to work on this day, though. People need to be able to plan on how to get their children to school, imagine all of the kids who's parents locked the front door as they left to go to work and just assumed that their child would be picked up.[/QUOTE] Thats why i Usually Have my Key with me

It really throws a whole lot of stuff out of wack

[QUOTE=willer;42459587]Cancelling all after-school athletic events. It has nothing to do with the buses because parents pick up the kids, but the school system just wants everyone in the area to connect "school bus work stoppage" with "my kid isn't having fun/I have to spend time with my child" and get pissed.[/QUOTE] the entire thing is just a metaphor for the shutdown

[QUOTE=willer;42459587]The drivers should have informed everyone that they weren't going to work on this day, though. People need to be able to plan on how to get their children to school, imagine all of the kids who's parents locked the front door as they left to go to work and just assumed that their child would be picked up.[/QUOTE] Depends on the situation. Sometimes it's better to be more "harsh" in order to put more pressure on one's employer. If they put up little resistance, they're less likely to get anything out of it.

Does anyone know what school bus drivers get paid? I'm leaning towards minimum wage but since you're trusting the safety of dozens of kids with them at a time it may be more towards the $15/hour mark. I'm sure some information has been omitted in the article because from what I'm reading it's nothing to strike over.

They should have chosen a different way to make their point. I don't know how Boston is, but if that happened here in Rockford, or in Chicago, they could have easily put kids at risk being in their dangerous neighborhoods with no supervision until they figure out that the bus isn't coming.

[QUOTE=darksoul69;42460700]Does anyone know what school bus drivers get paid? I'm leaning towards minimum wage but since you're trusting the safety of dozens of kids with them at a time it may be more towards the $15/hour mark. I'm sure some information has been omitted in the article because from what I'm reading it's nothing to strike over.[/QUOTE] Last year all the parents bitched about the buses showing up late, so the new company that the city contracts installed GPS monitoring on all the buses, but the company is using those devices to monitor the drivers. Some complained they can't even go to the bathroom because there is no allotted time to do it.

[QUOTE=darksoul69;42460700]Does anyone know what school bus drivers get paid? I'm leaning towards minimum wage but since you're trusting the safety of dozens of kids with them at a time it may be more towards the $15/hour mark. [/QUOTE] Nope, minimum wage, no overtime (Which the conveniently schedule so you have to go overtime, but don't get paid for it) non-contract teachers and education employees get seriously, SERIOUSLY fucked.

If I was getting paid minimum wage to drive a school bus I'd probably lose it. Not to mention a lot of the time the kids are little shits and don't listen to a word the driver says, which just adds stress into it all.

[QUOTE=glitchvid;42461405]Nope, minimum wage, no overtime (Which the conveniently schedule so you have to go overtime, but don't get paid for it) non-contract teachers and education employees get seriously, SERIOUSLY fucked.[/QUOTE] Really? School bus drivers work for like 3 or 4 hours a day.

[QUOTE=glitchvid;42461405]Nope, minimum wage, no overtime (Which the conveniently schedule so you have to go overtime, but don't get paid for it) non-contract teachers and education employees get seriously, SERIOUSLY fucked.[/QUOTE] So... what incentive do the drivers have to not strike? At six hours a day for five days a week that's only $960 a month at $8/hour.. even studio apartments are in the $600 range these days. I mean it's better then nothing but that really sucks. I hope the teachers at least get $14-$18 a hour. [editline]8th October 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=assassin_Raptor;42462419]Really? School bus drivers work for like 3 or 4 hours a day.[/QUOTE] Uh no, they have to go through preschool, elementary, middle school, junior high and high school plus other crap like after school events, then they have to drive the bus back for gas in between etc. Plus they work morning, afternoon and evenings. It's very much a full time job.

[QUOTE=darksoul69;42462648]So... what incentive do the drivers have to not strike? At six hours a day for five days a week that's only $960 a month at $8/hour.. even studio apartments are in the $600 range these days. I mean it's better then nothing but that really sucks. I hope the teachers at least get $14-$18 a hour. [editline]8th October 2013[/editline] Uh no, they have to go through preschool, elementary, middle school, junior high and high school plus other crap like after school events, then they have to drive the bus back for gas in between etc. Plus they work morning, afternoon and evenings. It's very much a full time job.[/QUOTE] Where I live, preschool doesn't get buses and elementary/middle/high school all start and end 20 minutes after eachother. We also only get buses after school when you have an away game and they just drop you off at the other HS.

[QUOTE=frozensoda;42461305]They should have chosen a different way to make their point. I don't know how Boston is, but if that happened here in Rockford, or in Chicago, they could have easily put kids at risk being in their dangerous neighborhoods with no supervision until they figure out that the bus isn't coming.[/QUOTE] schools should pay them more then

[QUOTE=willer;42459587] The drivers should have informed everyone that they weren't going to work on this day, though. People need to be able to plan on how to get their children to school, imagine all of the kids who's parents locked the front door as they left to go to work and just assumed that their child would be picked up.[/QUOTE] The purpose of most every labour action like a strike, a lock-in or a walk-out like this one is to be as damn inconvenient as possible, to show everyone why your job is so needed and as such, why you should have better terms to do it on. By announcing it to everyone, people would just be "Oh, we have to take our kid to school that day" instead of being "HOLY SHIT THIS IS A DYSTOPIAN MAD-MAX WASTELAND, NO SCHOOL BUSSES, FUCK MY TITTIES!"