Hundreds of Local Bus Drivers Rally for Better Wages

...so if you operate a school bus full of kids that entitles you to speed and weave through traffic because of your care for the kids? you may be the exception to the rule because you do care. all I can tell you is what I see EVERYDAY on my way to work. I will give ya'll one thing you're not as bad as the JTA drivers,'cause they will flat run you over if you don't take evasive actions to avoid THEM.

We DON'T NEED UNIONS WE NEED COMPETITION! Get rid of these big companies and hire back the local companies.

First of all I am a bus driver for first student All of you putting us drivers down should look how you drive your car I been driving for 4 years and saw alot of cars running our lights and almost hitting these kids trying too walk across the road Not all drivers are as bad as ya might think every route i have ever did the kids always loved me I do agree we dont need a union but we deserve more money and benefits Everyone gets paid for a job you do well we also do a job just like everyone else alot of people working in food,shopping centers,and other places can be just as bad as any bus driver some of ya probly dont even work sit on ya butts doing nothing look at your self before you judge anyone else

Go back to school and take an English class. When you can speak, or in this case write, proper English, try again to complain. In the mean-time, please don't speak to our children, we want them to speak proper English!!!

FIRST STUDENT DRIVER wrote:

THE ONES THAT HAVE NEVER DRIVEN A SCHOOL BUS FULL OF CHILDREN NEED TO DO IT ONE TIME. SOME OF US DO TAKE OUR JOB SERIOUSLY. DON'T BAD MOUTH ALL OF US.YOU CAN ASK ALL MY STUDENTS I LOOK OUT FOR THEM. WE DESERVE MORE MONEY FOR PUTTING YOU CHILD FIRST. WE ARE A PERSON JUST LIKE YOU SNOT NOSE BEHIND THE DESK PEOPLE THAT PLAY GAMES ON YOUR COMPUTER ALL DAY.

Andy Ervin wrote:

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

Unions are great....for the UNMOTIVATED! Whereas the rest of us prefer to control our own destinies. I have a safe workplace, make great money, and have health insurance too. The difference is I am paid far more than union counterparts because I produce and therefore set my own rates. Unions are great if you can't take responsibility for yourself which is also why union members vote democrat. Otherwise, unions blow.

FIRST STUDENT DRIVER wrote:

THE ONES THAT HAVE NEVER DRIVEN A SCHOOL BUS FULL OF CHILDREN NEED TO DO IT ONE TIME. SOME OF US DO TAKE OUR JOB SERIOUSLY. DON'T BAD MOUTH ALL OF US.YOU CAN ASK ALL MY STUDENTS I LOOK OUT FOR THEM. WE DESERVE MORE MONEY FOR PUTTING YOU CHILD FIRST. WE ARE A PERSON JUST LIKE YOU SNOT NOSE BEHIND THE DESK PEOPLE THAT PLAY GAMES ON YOUR COMPUTER ALL DAY.

This message was provided by the FIRST STUDENT PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT

not true wrote:

First of all I am a bus driver for first student All of you putting us drivers down should look how you drive your car I been driving for 4 years and saw alot of cars running our lights and almost hitting these kids trying too walk across the road Not all drivers are as bad as ya might think every route i have ever did the kids always loved me I do agree we dont need a union but we deserve more money and benefits Everyone gets paid for a job you do well we also do a job just like everyone else alot of people working in food,shopping centers,and other places can be just as bad as any bus driver some of ya probly dont even work sit on ya butts doing nothing look at your self before you judge anyone else

It is clear to me now why you drive a bus and don't have an office job behind a desk. A high school diploma is not a requirement is it?

A Parent wrote:

<quoted text>
It is clear to me now why you drive a bus and don't have an office job behind a desk. A high school diploma is not a requirement is it?

Well I dont sit at a computer all day like you do.Bye the way I got more then you do.I got a high school diploma thanks and i got 6 years of college.Little do you know.I just love my job.

not true wrote:

<quoted text>Well I dont sit at a computer all day like you do.Bye the way I got more then you do.I got a high school diploma thanks and i got 6 years of college.Little do you know.I just love my job.

If you have 6 years of higher learning you really need to sue whatever clown college you went to. it's BY the way, i HAVE more THAN you do, and I HAVE a high school diploma and I went to college for 6 years.

IMO All hard working people deserve a raise.High gas prices effect everyone and this could end up one of the excuses by those in charge of payraises not to give the drivers a raise.

FIRST STUDENT DRIVER wrote:

<quoted text>WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. YOU JUST NEED TO GET A LIFE.

And you need to quit SCREAMING with your typing.

Islander native wrote:

<quoted text>
Unions are great....for the UNMOTIVATED! Whereas the rest of us prefer to control our own destinies. I have a safe workplace, make great money, and have health insurance too. The difference is I am paid far more than union counterparts because I produce and therefore set my own rates. Unions are great if you can't take responsibility for yourself which is also why union members vote democrat. Otherwise, unions blow.

Clowns like you really make me laugh. All union members are lazy? You mean no non-union workers are lazy? I am controlling my destiny by signing a contract. People sign contracts for mortgages, car loans and even cell-phones, but they don't sign one for their job that will pay for all of those things. Being union is the best thing to happen to me and, by the way, in 18 years I have never had my work or work ethic questioned by my managers. EVER.
You also mention that you have a safe workplace. By who's standards? OSHA's? Who do you think fought for those safety protections? I know it wasn't you.
You make great money? Who fought for a living wage? Oh that's right you controlled your destiny.

Health Insurance? Who fought for those benefits? I really wish those that knock the labor movement would walk in to their managers and give up all of the things that the labor movement fought for. I believe if you take them you are a hypocrite. Why would you want something that UNMOTIVATED people fought for?

And spare me the BS that we don't need unions anymore. Union membership is declining and so are paid health benefits, pensions, and for the first time ever people in their 30's are earning less than their parents did in their 30's adjusted for inflation. Coincidence?

im not anti-union..when i was in my early 20's i worked at avis rent a car..and they were teamsters...and they helped me out with a couple of issues i had at work..that would have been swept under the rug had i not had a union rep..my thing is, first, what kind of wages do these people make? and i think our teachers need raises before bus drivers if the city has to pay up more money...

scott1 wrote:

<quoted text>If you have 6 years of higher learning you really need to sue whatever clown college you went to. it's BY the way, i HAVE more THAN you do, and I HAVE a high school diploma and I went to college for 6 years.

Now look what you wrote.Who needs to get a high school diploma.I bet you dont have one.

Repubhypocrisy wrote:

<quoted text>
Clowns like you really make me laugh. All union members are lazy? You mean no non-union workers are lazy?

Where precisely did I call anyone lazy? Where precisely did I indicate non-union workers are not?

Repubhypocrisy wrote:

<quoted text> I am controlling my destiny by signing a contract.

You call it "controlling your destiny", I call it limiting your destiny. You're giving up unlimited upside potential for a guaranteed stop loss. That's fine for the unmotivated but not me.

Repubhypocrisy wrote:

<quoted text> People sign contracts for mortgages, car loans and even cell-phones, but they don't sign one for their job that will pay for all of those things.

Uhhhhh, If you think signing a contract for any of the above is for your benefit, you haven't actually read your mortgage, car loan agreement, and cell phone contract.

Repubhypocrisy wrote:

<quoted text>Being union is the best thing to happen to me and, by the way, in 18 years I have never had my work or work ethic questioned by my managers. EVER.

As I said, unions are great, for the unmotivated. Union managers CAN'T question union employee conduct as long as they meet the lackadaisical standards set forth by the union.

Repubhypocrisy wrote:

<quoted text>You also mention that you have a safe workplace. By who's standards? OSHA's? Who do you think fought for those safety protections? I know it wasn't you.

Unions haven't done anything for workplace safety since the 60's. Which coincidentally was the last decade unions waining usefulness. When created, unions were beneficial and necessary. However, by the end of the 60's their usefulness became so low they actually became counterproductive which has increased ever since.

Repubhypocrisy wrote:

<quoted text>You make great money? Who fought for a living wage? Oh that's right you controlled your destiny.

I don't make a "living wage", which is such a wore out union term. I make much, much, more. I am motivated by my own success and therefore want to do more than earn a "living wage". The union, I can assure you, has never fought for me.

Repubhypocrisy wrote:

<quoted text>I really wish those that knock the labor movement would walk in to their managers and give up all of the things that the labor movement fought for. I believe if you take them you are a hypocrite. Why would you want something that UNMOTIVATED people fought for?

At least we agree on something - the "labor movement" is in fact a movement. As a sought after productive employee, I demand health insurance. The union provides nothing for me and only a growth ceiling for you.

Repubhypocrisy wrote:

<quoted text>And spare me the BS that we don't need unions anymore. Union membership is declining and so are paid health benefits, pensions, and for the first time ever people in their 30's are earning less than their parents did in their 30's adjusted for inflation. Coincidence?

If unions are so beneficial, why is membership declining? Pensions? Pensions? Holy crap, do you have any idea how much pensions burden future workers? Perhaps pensions are why the 30-year-olds you refer to are making less money than their parents. Perhaps it's because there isn't enough money left after companies pay pensions. Do you honestly think a worker should be paid by a company until death?

If you love the union and it works for your family, I'm honestly thrilled for you. I prefer to negotiate my own salary and benefits, I prefer to control my own retirement, I prefer to control my own destiny and that of my family. No one, and certainly not some corrupt union boss, can or will do that better than me.

Bubba Roid-
If you are a product of the Jacksonville school system then I would have to agree that something is terribly wrong there. Are you are a wealthy, god fearing, rugged individualist who boot-strapped your way to the awesomely lofty perch from which you dispense those pearls of wisdom? Perhaps a checker at Walmart? Is name calling the most intelligent "argument" you can muster?

If an employment contract is necessary for the CEO of the company then its certainly good enough for those of us who actually do the work.

Live Better-Work Union! Organized labor brought us the 4o hour work week, sick pay, vacation pay, social security, and a pension. You know- all of that crap that's no longer necessary and that a good anti-union, right to work, patriotic dude such as yourself has never accepted because they originated from "scum" union folk. Right? Right. Taxpayer. What a loon!

cabgx2 wrote:

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 Student( a British Company)has the contract because they, as well as the local companies bid for it and First Student submitted a bid lower than that of your precious local contractor. No doubt that they were able to do so owing to the crap wages they pay their drivers. The First Student organizing campaign is not limited to Jacksonville, its nationwide. If the Teamsters negotiate wages and benefits with First Student which hamper their ability to turn a profit or are higher than the local contractors pay then next time around the local folks should win back the bid. What's the problem?