Yaaaaaaaaaay!!!
Related: Back on the Boston Globe School Bus
Nothing yet from the Globe regarding the trucker strike.
Back on the bus, folks.
"School buses roll, but tensions remain" by James Vaznis | Globe Staff, October 10, 2013
“There is still uncertainty that hangs over each day,” said Brian Ballou, a School Department spokesman.
The strike was the first for the bus drivers union in 22 years. The union’s dispute with Veolia Corp., the private contractor that oversees the city’s four bus yards, remains volatile and full of drama.
I'm already losing interest.
The School Department was bracing for a potentially rough morning after the union announced Wednesday night that Veolia had placed two labor leaders on leave. The leaders were not identified.
Before dawn broke, some drivers attempted to halt service again....
They are really looking to incur the wrath of people, are they not?
Tensions flared again mid-morning, as Veolia ordered one union official, Steve Kirschbaum, out of the Readville yard. Kirschbaum is chairman of the bus union’s grievance committee. A Veolia spokeswoman offered limited comment, noting it was a personnel issue.
The chief instigator and troublemaker!
“He needed to be off the property and the union was aware of that,” said Valerie Michael, a Veolia spokeswoman.
She declined to say whether Kirschbaum was one of the two union leaders that the company placed on leave, and said she hoped a resolution could be reached soon on the union issues.
Kirschbaum could not be reached for comment.
On Wednesday, two Menino administration officials identified Kirschbaum as well as the union’s vice president, Steve Gillis, as the instigators of Tuesday’s strike. They also accused the two of intimidating and bullying other drivers into going along with the strike, even as the president of the union and representatives from its parent organization urged drivers to get back on the job.
The union’s contract forbids strikes, stoppages, and even slowdowns, and says participating individuals can be fired.
That doesn't seem to be very good advice from union brothers, but maybe they have a higher union to adhere ju.
Alfred Gordon, a lawyer for the union, said officials are hoping the issues the drivers have been raising for months can be resolved soon. But he expressed concern about the company taking steps that could upset workers, such as placing employees on leave.
“The more action the company takes to incite members and leaders, the further we get from establishing labor harmony,” Gordon said. “The union has consistently told all drivers to continue doing their jobs and driving their students. . . . As long as the company is not taking steps to provoke action, I hope that the service will continue to happen.”
Wait a minute, who started this anyway?
The union has raised myriad issues, which center on pay, benefits, and respect. In particular, the union is trying to persuade the company to stop using GPS data and a bus-routing software program to calculate how much time it should take drivers to do a route, then using that data to determine their “flat” pay rate.
Look, the whole world is being tracked by AmeriKa so flipping get used to it.
The union contends that the practice is forbidden under its contract. Drivers have said the computerized data tends to underestimate travel times in heavy traffic, ultimately shortchanging them on pay.
Well, HOW MUCH do "POOR" school bus drivers in Boston make?
Similarly, the union is asking for restoration of what they call a contractually mandated daily school bus report, in which drivers record the time it takes to perform all their duties, such as cleaning up their buses at the end of a shift, which can be time consuming.
The union also has accused Veolia officials of refusing to meet with them on many occasions since the company assumed oversight of the city’s four bus yards in July. Consequently, the union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in August, outlining its grievances.
I can't believe that after I looked at their wonderful corporate website yesterday.
According to the School Department, the average salary and benefits package for a bus driver has increased over the last five years from $53,307 to $63,640.
Are you flipping $hitting me?
I was under the impre$$ion they were below $20,000 and all that mythology promoted by my corporate ma$$ media? Turns out these aggrieved drivers are living high off the hog for a PART-TIME GIG?!
The vast majority of buses arrived to school on time Thursday, with 91.7 percent dropping students off before the opening bell. But attendance on Thursday appeared to plummet, with schools reporting an 82.4-percent attendance rate. That’s about 12 percentage points lower than the average.
Wait a minute, stop the bus and go back to the last stop!
It remains unclear when the labor dispute will be resolved. They two sides did not formally meet Thursday, after gathering for several hours Wednesday at a Quincy hotel. Another negotiating session had not been scheduled as of Thursday night.
All of a sudden the a$$hole union is getting what it wants?
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"Bus drivers’ union leader polarizing, popular" by Brian MacQuarrie | Globe Staff, October 11, 2013
Stevan Kirschbaum, the polarizing force behind a wildcat strike, a “bully” and the leader of a “rogue element,” menacing, narcissistic, and dangerously disruptive.
It seems to be a characteristic of a certain ethnic tribe, yeah.
But among a large faction of bus drivers, many of whom are Haitian and Cape Verdean immigrants, Kirschbaum is often regarded as their charismatic guide through a bewildering thicket of government bureaucracy and Byzantine labor law.
In other words, he is a friend of illegal immigrant labor.
This loyalty apparently persists despite a repudiation of the strike by the union’s president, Dumond Louis, and its parent organization, the United Steelworkers of America....
“He’s a great leader,” said Jean-Claude Toussaint, 57, the chief steward at the Readville school bus yard.
And on Tuesday, at the Readville bus yard, Kirschbaum drove the protest by exhorting his fellow workers with a chant-amplifying bullhorn....
A la Alex Jones!!!
During those early, turbulent years as a driver, Kirschbaum also became a leader in the effort to unionize. In 1978, the union was formed following a raucous strike during which Kirschbaum was one of 14 drivers sentenced to the Charles Street Jail.
“He knows the union business, he knows the contract, he knows all the laws and bylaws, and that’s the reason we’re with him,” Toussaint said, as other drivers nodded in agreement in Readville.
Over the years, however, Kirschbaum’s reputation as a social crusader has been muddied by six strikes, which angered parents and school administrators who charged that the union callously used students to leverage better contracts.
The reaction to the latest strike has been no different.
“He styles himself as being professional, being on the right side of social justice issues, and I think this strike was inconsistent with that,” said Kim Janey, senior project director of Massachusetts Advocates for Children. “This is not good for kids, and we have to do what’s in the best interest of children.”
Is that what feeding them outdated food in the school lunch program did? All the politically correct propaganda and wars based on lies they are sent to fight in their best interests? The ball-and-chain of student debt.... ah, never mind anymore.
Kirschbaum’s activism also has been on loud display at School Committee meetings when he has protested school closings, budget cuts, and changes to the school assignment process. Chants, drums, bells, and a bullhorn have been used at various meetings, but Kirschbaum made a new, startling impression in late 2010 when he brought a cardboard coffin to a session at Boston English High to protest school closings.
The coffin, carried to the stage past a stunned audience, proclaimed the “death of education,” one observer recalled.
Despite his controversial tactics, Kirschbaum has helped win a better living for the bus drivers.
Yeah, I gue$$ so!!!
Their average salary of about $50,000 is competitive with other US cities, said Samuel Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a government watchdog group. And Kirschbaum has brought Veolia Corp., a private contractor that employs the drivers, to the bargaining table.
“He’s sort of a ’60s radical guy who likes to stir the pot,” Tyler said.
Anyone check to see if he has been $moking it?
However, Tyler added, “there are better ways of getting attention through more traditional channels than using the students as the pawns.”
But it is a good way to create hate of an "enemy" and start wars via a mouthpiece media.
Veolia negotiators did not sit down with the drivers on Thursday but are expected to meet with them again soon, said Valerie Michael, a company spokeswoman. No date had been set by late Thursday afternoon.
Veolia has placed two union officials on paid leave pending further investigation, according to union members. Michael would not say whether Kirschbaum is one of those officials or comment on personnel matters.
The union is demanding that Veolia, which manages the drivers for the city-owned bus fleet, remove GPS devices from the vehicles. The electronic tools, which are used to calculate driver pay and keep track of buses, have been described by Kirschbaum at a Workers World Party convention as “Homeland Security’s intervention into the labor movement.”
Actually, we need those to make sure the bus can be found if anything, God forbid, should happen. That's not caring about kids, Steve!
I would also hope the NSA would look into his connections with this Workers of the World Unite party. Looks communist or Marxist to me, and we don't like that 'round h're.
Drivers also want better controls over the payroll system. Union members say Veolia has routinely shortchanged drivers since the company assumed control of the bus contract July 1.
$65,000 a year is shortchanged for a PART-TIME GIG? What greedy bastards!
“Every day at lunch, we wait in line for 35, 40 minutes to meet with someone in the payroll department about a paycheck they messed up,” Toussaint said. “We are frustrated, we are stressed, and we feel humiliated by this company.”
Aw, had a hard time getting your check and lost your lunch period? Poor baby! Can I see your green card?
The union also wants....
Want, want, want, every paragraph. Time to boo them on the bus ride, kids. Or start chanting a$$hole, a$$hole, a$$hole.
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Wow, did this $hill of corporate liberali$m ever turn into a union platform. Kirschbaum becomes a hero!