Withers added, “We have not had an increase in pay since 2000 a cost of living since 2009.”
#School bus driver driver
“The county knew months ago that we had an issue and they failed to follow it through,” bus driver Dianne Withers told WBAL.
#School bus driver drivers
On Monday, about 80 bus drivers in Howard County, the seventh wealthiest in the United States, called a sickout over inadequate pay and the complete lack of any benefits. Starting in early October, drivers struck in Anne Arundel, Calvert and Charles counties. As with the job actions in North Carolina, none were sanctioned by a union. Maryland has also seen a wave of bus driver strikes. After the Forsyth County wildcat action did not take place, Heather Bolling, president of the North Carolina School Bus Drivers Association, told the Winston-Salem Journal, “Striking is illegal, and therefore not the answer.” Notably, all of the actions in North Carolina took place without union sanction. We will continue advocating for the $15 to be in this year’s budget.” The county has 67 bus driver vacancies.Ĭonfirming the hostility of the Democratic Party to the needs and interests of the working class, Democratic state representative Rosa Gill told WRAL in regard to the strikers, “Most of our non-certified school personnel are underpaid and that is why the Governor’s and House of Representatives’ budgets proposed a minimum hourly wage of $15. Kimberly Shouse, a driver, told local media that 200 of the county’s 286 bus drivers were prepared to strike. She also spends four hours in the parking lot between drop off and pick up bus runs each day because she cannot afford gas to go home between shifts.Īnother wildcat bus driver action planned for October 28 in Forsyth County, North Carolina, was called off at the last moment after school transportation officials met with a group of bus drivers to discuss their concerns. McNeil, a bus driver for 21 years, has to wake up at 4 a.m. You have some drivers out here that are on food stamps and that are on housing assistance.”Īnother Wake County driver, Alicia McNeil, told Spectrum News 1, “The burnout and the stress is really starting to take a toll on all of us.” With 220 driver vacancies in the county, the remaining drivers have to take on extra routes. “When I say stressful, it is like, beyond stressful. The same driver explained that working conditions are abysmal. We are to get our raise, and we are not going to stop until we get it,” a driver told WRAL. “The board needs to understand that we are not playing. In response to this insulting pay increase, at least 30 bus drivers continued the strike the following day. On November 2, the third day of the Wake County strike, the board of education approved a one-time $1,250 bonus. The strike began on Friday, October 29, with at least 200 out of 600 drivers calling out sick. The Cumberland County strike comes on the heels of a four-day strike by bus drivers in North Carolina’s largest school district, Wake County, where drivers’ pay starts at $15 an hour. With inflation rising at a 30-year high of over 6 percent, such a pay “increase” will in fact amount to a massive pay cut. She added, “We call ourselves CNAs with CDLs” because of the extra responsibilities such drivers have to care for the medical needs of these students.Ĭumberland County, which has 46 vacant driver positions, has not offered any specific wage increases to date, only the “possibility” of a 3 percent increase, according to county spokesperson Lindsay Whitley. “We love our kids, but we have to stand out here to make people see how we are being treated,” Gwendolyn McKelvin, a bus driver for special needs students, told local television station WRAL. Starting pay in the county is only $12.21 an hour. More than 100 bus drivers in Cumberland County, North Carolina, are engaged in an ongoing strike that started on Tuesday. On Monday, unionized bus drivers in Smithfield, Rhode Island, voted to authorize a strike and a strike vote was due to take place Friday involving drivers from three Delaware counties. Since October, strikes of bus drivers have taken place in North Carolina, Maryland and New Mexico. The drivers are protesting abysmal pay and increased workloads amidst a massive nationwide shortage of bus drivers exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent weeks, school bus drivers in a number of states have engaged in strikes, including numerous wildcat actions independent of the unions.
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