Laidlaw -- What a Bargain
It was reported in the Gazette-Times that Laidlaw Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Union are once again close to signing a new contract. They have to go through this huge rigamarole every couple of years to get this done. Indeed, the contract between the bus drivers and the company has been expired since June 2006.
What I find amazing is how the union and Laidlaw both fail the employees who actually have to drive the school buses every day. Laidlaw is notorious for underpaying employees while making idiotic business decisions that cost the company more money. But this union just stinks. They don't bargain well and they haven't accomplished much on behalf of the bus drivers.
Let's talk for a moment about Laidlaw's wages and benefits. There is virtually always a help wanted ad in the paper asking for new employees. They promise free training, a starting wage of something like $9.93 per hour, and even claim that there are also benefits and flexible hours. Oh really? No, not really.
Technically, the advertisement doesn't lie. If you manage to somehow work 40 hours in a week, then yes, you become eligible for benefits. However, the vast majority of their employees work a couple hours in the morning, break for the middle of the day, then work for a couple hours in the afternoon. Makes sense, when you consider what hours school buses are operating. But the schedule makes it difficult for most of the employees to hit that 40-hour mark. As for flexible hours, the school day starts and ends at fixed times. The only really flexible shifts are for the substitutes who fill in for a route here and there. They do always need subs, because they always need employees, but I wouldn't consider this a flexible hour policy.
Why do they always need employees? Because working 2 or 3 hours in the morning, taking a 4-hour break, then working another 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon for less than $10 an hour sucks. Not only that, but the brilliant decision to move the bus barn miles out of town means actually commuting to pick up the bus twice a day, unless the employees want to hang out at the bus barn for a long, boring lunch. I have it from a trusted source that the local Laidlaw management were completely surprised that their in-town lease wasn't renewed. They never bothered to ask; they simply assumed the lease would be renewed. As a result, they only had a couple of weeks to find new digs, and that's why the new digs are almost in Albany.
Also, let's be realistic. The kids are not all little angels. I had the opportunity to ride along on a few routes a couple of years ago (as a navigator for someone in training who didn't know the town well) and there's something up with Adair Village middle schoolers. Those kids are pure evil. Parents, I know it's tempting to believe that your children do no wrong, but bus drivers mostly don't have vendettas against children. If they write a citation for your child and Junior says, "It wasn't me," well, to be frank, your child is probably lying. I know it's disappointing, but you will make this world a better place if you actually discipline your child instead of threatening to sue the school district. Some parents, when confronted with video footage of their little angels punching other little angels in the face, actually claimed the children in question simply resembled their kids, but it couldn't possibly be their kids. Nice, eh? But I'm way off point here.
So yeah, it's a difficult job, for lousy pay and the turnover is high. What is the union doing about this? Mostly garnering a couple more cents per hour for the most senior employees, while the entry level wage still lingers under the $10 mark. They accomplish little, yet treat minor gains as stellar achievements. I say fire everyone except the actual bus drivers and start over.
Now here's another question. Why don't the school bus drivers fall under the Living Wage ordinance Corvallis passed in 1999? Every company that contracts with the city or agency of the city is supposed to pay employees a living wage (currently set at $10.47... still less than the $12 or so that Philomath and Albany pay their bus drivers). The Corvallis Transit city bus drivers start at $15/hour and actually work full time, so they receive benefits right away, rather than waiting years and years. Plus, they can work year-round. Laidlaw contracts with the school district, which should be equivalent to a contract with the city, no? Is the union really just so awful that they don't press for enforcement of this issue when the new contracts are proposed? Or is there some gaping loophole I'm missing?
At least the contract is nearly signed, nine months late. In a year or so, we'll be treated to more bargaining, threats of strike, and probably another contract that garners a nickel for the people with whom we trust our children's safety and well-being nearly every day of the school year.
What I find amazing is how the union and Laidlaw both fail the employees who actually have to drive the school buses every day. Laidlaw is notorious for underpaying employees while making idiotic business decisions that cost the company more money. But this union just stinks. They don't bargain well and they haven't accomplished much on behalf of the bus drivers.
Let's talk for a moment about Laidlaw's wages and benefits. There is virtually always a help wanted ad in the paper asking for new employees. They promise free training, a starting wage of something like $9.93 per hour, and even claim that there are also benefits and flexible hours. Oh really? No, not really.
Technically, the advertisement doesn't lie. If you manage to somehow work 40 hours in a week, then yes, you become eligible for benefits. However, the vast majority of their employees work a couple hours in the morning, break for the middle of the day, then work for a couple hours in the afternoon. Makes sense, when you consider what hours school buses are operating. But the schedule makes it difficult for most of the employees to hit that 40-hour mark. As for flexible hours, the school day starts and ends at fixed times. The only really flexible shifts are for the substitutes who fill in for a route here and there. They do always need subs, because they always need employees, but I wouldn't consider this a flexible hour policy.
Why do they always need employees? Because working 2 or 3 hours in the morning, taking a 4-hour break, then working another 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon for less than $10 an hour sucks. Not only that, but the brilliant decision to move the bus barn miles out of town means actually commuting to pick up the bus twice a day, unless the employees want to hang out at the bus barn for a long, boring lunch. I have it from a trusted source that the local Laidlaw management were completely surprised that their in-town lease wasn't renewed. They never bothered to ask; they simply assumed the lease would be renewed. As a result, they only had a couple of weeks to find new digs, and that's why the new digs are almost in Albany.
Also, let's be realistic. The kids are not all little angels. I had the opportunity to ride along on a few routes a couple of years ago (as a navigator for someone in training who didn't know the town well) and there's something up with Adair Village middle schoolers. Those kids are pure evil. Parents, I know it's tempting to believe that your children do no wrong, but bus drivers mostly don't have vendettas against children. If they write a citation for your child and Junior says, "It wasn't me," well, to be frank, your child is probably lying. I know it's disappointing, but you will make this world a better place if you actually discipline your child instead of threatening to sue the school district. Some parents, when confronted with video footage of their little angels punching other little angels in the face, actually claimed the children in question simply resembled their kids, but it couldn't possibly be their kids. Nice, eh? But I'm way off point here.
So yeah, it's a difficult job, for lousy pay and the turnover is high. What is the union doing about this? Mostly garnering a couple more cents per hour for the most senior employees, while the entry level wage still lingers under the $10 mark. They accomplish little, yet treat minor gains as stellar achievements. I say fire everyone except the actual bus drivers and start over.
Now here's another question. Why don't the school bus drivers fall under the Living Wage ordinance Corvallis passed in 1999? Every company that contracts with the city or agency of the city is supposed to pay employees a living wage (currently set at $10.47... still less than the $12 or so that Philomath and Albany pay their bus drivers). The Corvallis Transit city bus drivers start at $15/hour and actually work full time, so they receive benefits right away, rather than waiting years and years. Plus, they can work year-round. Laidlaw contracts with the school district, which should be equivalent to a contract with the city, no? Is the union really just so awful that they don't press for enforcement of this issue when the new contracts are proposed? Or is there some gaping loophole I'm missing?
At least the contract is nearly signed, nine months late. In a year or so, we'll be treated to more bargaining, threats of strike, and probably another contract that garners a nickel for the people with whom we trust our children's safety and well-being nearly every day of the school year.
posted by Corvallist at
9:11 PM
6 Comments:
I have no real information to back this up – but the impression I had was that their move out to the boondocks had nothing to do with their lease. I assumed they were consciously dodging the city’s living wage regulation. Laidlaw management may not be as idiotic as you think.
As to whether $10 is a living wage; is bus driving a career path? It’s a job. For a career folks need to get a degree, advanced training and skills, and enter a labor pool with more demand than supply. The day Laidlaw fails to get enough respondents to its help wanted ads is the day they will likely raise their pay scale.
The drivers’ union stinks? I wonder how much the drivers have to pay in dues? I’ve worked in several closed shops where union membership was mandatory, and the union always makes more from the relationship than its members.
The city has no business telling employers what to pay, then expecting business to stay in the city. If through regulation or union coercion Laidlaw is pressured to pay more, it does nothing to create a better economy or higher standard of living. The higher wages would only be reflected in higher contracts to the school district then reflected in larger class sizes or cut programs. Let supply and demand work.
Michael
By
Michael Smith, at 9:34 AM
I had a friend working there when the lease expired. The management genuinely did not see it coming. There was a mad scramble to find another place and their preference was another place in Corvallis, but since they started looking so late, they had to take what they could get.
As for the rest of your comment, arguments often used to dispute the need for a minimum wage, let alone a living wage, we'll have to disagree. Not everyone is able to pursue a degree...for myriad reasons. And for some, that means driving a school bus is indeed a career path. In addition, having a degree is no guarantee that a well-paying career will automatically follow.
By
Corvallist, at 5:15 PM
that is the one thing i agree with you about. there are so many people we dont even hear about who have an impressive or (s) degrees and maybe even all the up to the top rung;yet, some many of them work in jobs they are so overqualified for; you know what i mean i am sure. maybe not burger king but see the point. you have to pay off your student loan somehow...and, maybe that is why so many are sticking with the jobs they have all thru college in case a job or career doesnt happen by them when graduating. all the stay in school talk. then you hear stories of persons who drop out of school and go on to become very well off or millionaires. obviously an exception to the rule;no one can afford to let things slip thru their fingers anymore; i have made that mistake more times than i want to remember..well i dont know how to end this so i will.....
By
Anonymous, at 7:45 PM
Anonymous, it's just a fact. As a former low-level manager, I hired people with advanced degrees, including a guy with a PhD who was applying for fast food jobs because the available positions in his field were few.
Even in my case, the average starting wage when I graduate from college will be less than I'm earning now. Not everyone majors in engineering or business (thank God!).
By
Corvallist, at 7:55 PM
Productivity has gone up in the last ten years. That means companies can produce more product with the same number of workers. Does that mean they pay their workers more? No. Average real wages haven't increased at all. The extra money is seen in larger corporate profits. That benefits the stockholders but not the workers. What's more, there's less demand for workers because of the increase in productivity. Plus there is other option: ship the factory to China. The result is that in this country, there are more poor people than ever, and the rich are getting richer.
It's pretty easy to say things are just fine when you're doing just fine.
By
Christopher Farrell, at 10:10 PM
I used to work with a union that included school bus drivers in another state. There is a surprising amount of "flexibility" in bus driver's schedules that comes in the form of field trips. So, it's not as though drivers can simply restructure their schedules, but it is possible (and necessary for many) to pick up extra hours. That being said, I don't dispute that Laidlaw is well known for treating its employees like crap, or that ATU needs to be doing better by its members in this case.
As far as the living wage, (I may be wrong on this, as implied above, I am a transplant) is the school district a separate taxing authority, rather than a department of the city? If so, wouldn't that explain the lack of applicability of the ordinance?
By
Anonymous, at 9:56 AM
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