Hundreds of Local Bus Drivers Rally for Better Wages

If the current drivers become teamsters, other than the cost to taxpayers, what will make them safer drivers...... Money dont make you safe... of course then the school board might have to stop spending money that is not appropriated for the reason it was spent,,, ie $24,000,000.00

If you want better pay here are some steps you can take.

1. Get an education and a marketable skill. Anyone can drive a bus so why should they pay you any more?

2. Take a freaking bath every now and then. Most of these drivers look like they haven't seen a bar of soap in weeks.

3. Earn pay increases by working hard and doing your job. You won't get anywhere in FL by striking.

and if First Student would like to prevent this again....look at the driving records (ie DUIs, drug charges, etc) before hiring them.

My daughter was one of the children transported to school via First Student bus drivers. One was absolutely WONDERFUl, the other was dangerous. Not only did she talk on her cell phone while transporting those children, she also stopped one afternoon, to fill her bus with gas, with the children on it.

Maybe if there are raises, First Student can get better individuals to work for them.

We are cutting the school budget, teachers make next to nothing... and these bus drivers think they can rally for more money?
Good luck
Where do you expect this money to come from?

most of the bus drivers dont give a crap about the children they transport i have been driving behind them seen them run red lights and stop signs one of my children use to ride a bus and she was always treated bad and was told to shut up and called names it was bad and just on the news yesterday the bus driver beat up a handycap boy for the 2nd time they dont deserve any more pay they need to take Jacob's advice!!!!!!!!!!

For what? Working short hours and condoning the beating of autistic children on the bus. Psst, its not that hard to find replacement bus drivers.

We probably wouldn't be seeing this happen had we left the old bus system intact, utilizing local businesses...

Unions suck the life out of our economy. Instead of relying on drive, determination, education and skill, a union employee relies on the union for pay rate, benifits and job security.

I have actually call the police a number of times to report reckless driving by First Student drivers, I've watched them run red lights while children were on board, cut people off (including me), talking on their cell phones while driving with kids on board, leave the bus and walk into McDonalds or a corner store while kids were on board. I agree with Jacob, if they want raises they need to earn it!!!

Good point! These people are kidding themselves, if they think they have done anything to earn a raise, I can't count the number of instances involving First Student just in the last year!

Once upon a time my second grader at the time was being transported to the chimney lakes gifted program and had to give the bus driver directions to get there. What does that tell you?

Park the schools buses and recycle them into scrap metal along with the JTA and send the metal to china and import bicycles from china. Look at all the money that can be saved.

Is there any sort of link between busing and academic achievement? Sending the illiterates to the higher level schools only dragged the brighter students down to lower levels. They had to grade with a curve and now we grade with the standardized FCAT.

Highschool kids go to school at 7:30 and are home by 1:30 with no homework. They don't have to study anything to make a passing grade. How sad is that?

It is about time. Being a teamster member for 20 yrs. has earned me a safer work enviroment,The best pay and health insurance. I truely wish more people had it as good as I do. Go Union

Isnt this the same company that had a driver scaring kids, stating he was drunk and had pills in the glove compartment. Several of the kids got off the bus and called thier parents last week. They want more money for that kind of behavior??? Well join the club. We all want more money.

We can thank the school board for this. They were the ones who decided to go with major contractors (many from out of town) instead of the local contractor system, that had worked for decades.

First Stupid needs to go back to wherever they came from. I long for the days of independent local bus companies, where there was a phone number on the side of the bus that you could call and actually speak with someone about bad driving, etc. It also made for cheaper field trips for the students/schools when you actually had companies/contractors bidding ...

when the busses were handled by several local families it was so much better...you hardly ever saw any wreckless drivers or anything like that..now you got rita-retard driving kids all around like she has no sense....and seriously..a raise? do they even work enough hours for a raise to make a difference?

unions are a thing of the past and aren't needed anymore.these bus drivers are never on time and sometimes never show up at all.why do you think new cars cost so much?some ingrate getting 30 an hour for turning a bolt.

...how about investing some money for drivers education for about 90% of these mo's? they exceed the speed limits regularly and weave in and out of traffic like it's the Grand Prix. I thank God every day my kids don't have to ride the bus.