{"id":383521,"date":"2010-03-03T08:28:18","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T13:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.southernstudies.org,2010:\/\/5.12165"},"modified":"2010-03-09T11:45:01","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T16:45:01","slug":"bus-drivers-hold-daylong-strike-at-university-of-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/383521","title":{"rendered":"Bus drivers hold daylong strike at University of Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AlabamaBusStrike.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

By Jake DaSilva, Labor Notes<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Bus drivers at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa struck Monday
\nafter nine months of bargaining left their employer — a contractor — still
\ndemanding at-will employment and frozen wages.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning about 60 drivers, members of Amalgamated Transit
\nUnion Local 1208, authorized a strike and took to the picket line to
\nachieve a first contract.<\/p>\n

Student activists distributed flyers encouraging people not to ride
\nbuses driven by scabs. Just more than half the drivers honored the
\nstrike.<\/p>\n

Tia Brown, a steward, said drivers make only $9.50 per hour. “That
\nis not a fair wage for people who have a commercial driver’s license,”
\nshe said.<\/p>\n

The university brought in scabs and had them drive university vans
\naround the bus routes, but students had longer waiting times because so
\nfew buses made it out.<\/p>\n

By mid-afternoon a negotiator for the contracted bus operator, First
\nTransit, called ATU International Vice President Kenneth Kirk and asked
\nto hold negotiations immediately.<\/p>\n

The strike forced the company to come back to the table and drivers
\nvoted to come back to work. While they don’t have a clear victory yet,
\nthe drivers feel the company’s movement is a good sign. They also said
\nthat they would be willing to go right back out on strike if the
\ncontract offer does not improve.<\/p>\n

Small victories, big plans<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

Strikers reported small successes, including convincing one scab to
\ndrive off after a confrontation. Two other workers who were going to
\ncross the line took off their company jackets and joined the pickets. “Nothing’s ever going to change if you go in there and work for $9.50!”
\nstrikers yelled.<\/p>\n

The union’s members, officers, and staff are predominantly Black and
\ntheir fight has given labor struggle a visibility not normally accorded
\nto unions and workers in the Deep South.<\/p>\n

The drivers at the University of Alabama formed their union last
\nsummer, fed up with low wages, a lack of benefits, and inadequate time
\noff. Their vote was unanimous.<\/p>\n

Since that time First Transit, a UK-based multinational, has been
\nstalling in negotiations. The drivers have met with negotiators several
\ntimes but the offers have been abysmal.<\/p>\n

First Transit offered the drivers either less than they are getting
\ncurrently or about the same in wages and benefits. The company says its
\ncontract with the university mandates at-will employment. The union has
\nfiled several unfair labor practice charges over the company’s firing
\nworkers for union activity. ATU represents 12,000 workers nationwide at
\nFirst Transit.<\/p>\n

“This campaign is about fair play for all,” said Kenneth Crout, a driver and member.<\/p>\n

The union used a Freedom of Information Act request to reveal that
\nthe university pays $55 an hour per driver to First Transit, helping
\nits parent company score a $200 million profit through the first half
\nof last year. <\/p>\n

Drivers at the University of Texas, also under contract with First Transit, make $11.75 an hour starting pay and top out at $17.<\/p>\n

The disparity came to light on Alabama’s campus as the two schools
\nprepared to face off at the Rose Bowl, college football’s championship
\ngame.<\/p>\n

“It upset a whole lot of people to find out how badly the drivers
\nwere being treated,” said Clayton Sinyai, ATU’s director of strategic
\ncampaigns.<\/p>\n

Students leapt on the opportunity to support the drivers. Students
\nfor a Democratic Society is phone-banking, collecting petitions,
\ntalking to riders on the buses, and writing letters to the student
\nnewspaper. Together with documentary filmmaker Ginger Jolly and members
\nof the Student Labor Action Movement, they’re making a YouTube
\ndocumentary about the bus drivers’ fight for a living wage.<\/p>\n

West Alabama’s union community has pulled together to support the
\ndrivers, too. The powerful Steelworkers Local 351L has given ATU space
\nat their hall for its base of operations.<\/p>\n

Student activists and the union have targeted Robert Witt, the University of Alabama’s president. Like countless administrators only too eager to outsource responsibility<\/a>
\nfor the wages and working conditions of people working on their
\ncampuses, he has refused to acknowledge the hundreds and hundreds of
\nexpressions of support for the drivers.<\/p>\n

Recently union members and officials held a meeting with student
\nactivists to discuss ways to increase the pressure on First Transit,
\nincluding by holding peaceful protests on campus.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen increasing numbers of private contractors coming in to
\nprovide service, and this one has come in with the most hostile
\nattitude,” Sinyai said. “They used a lot of orthodox union-busting at
\nfirst, and they are still the most difficult to work with on wages and
\nworking conditions.”<\/p>\n

Jake Da Silva is a graduate student in Library and Information Studies at the <\/i>University of Alabama <\/i>and works with the Student Labor Action Movement.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jake DaSilva, Labor Notes Bus drivers at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa struck Monday after nine months of bargaining left their employer — a contractor — still demanding at-will employment and frozen wages. On Monday morning about 60 drivers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1208, authorized a strike and took to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}