De Blasio plans $42M in grants to raise school-bus workers’ pay

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 16 Agustus 2014 | 17.08

Mayor de Blasio wants to hand over $42 million in taxpayer funds to private school-bus workers in a effort to restore union seniority protections removed by the Bloomberg administration, sources told The Post.

A measure pushed by de Blasio would boost unionized workers who took pay cuts or lost their jobs last year after the prior administration secured cheaper school-bus contracts for the first time since 1979.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg had said his deal would save the city $210 million over five years. De Blasio now intends to return part of those savings to the bus workers.

De Blasio plans to give grants to private bus companies that hire veteran drivers, matrons and mechanics, giving the firms an incentive to take on senior workers without incurring the full cost of their salaries.

Under his plan, taxpayers — with City Council approval — would be funding salary hikes for workers not employed by the city.

Veteran drivers made as much as $29 an hour under the old contracts, more than double the new starting rate.

"This is a de Blasio giveaway to the owners of the school-bus companies," one council source said. "Really, what should happen is the school-bus owners should be pressured to pay [the workers] more."

Yellow-bus interests contributed nearly $40,000 to the mayor's Campaign for One New York non-profit in the first half of 2014.

The council is set to hold a hearing on the grant program Tuesday and could vote on it by Thursday.

Mayoral spokesman Wiley Norvell declined to confirm details of the one-year bonuses.

"We've been working hard to identify a solution everyone can get behind that ensures we have the safest, most experienced drivers behind the wheel," he said.

The saga started in late 2012, when Bloomberg announced plans to bid out thousands of school-bus routes — without long-held seniority protections, which critics say jack up the price of contracts.

The largest school-bus workers union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, began a strike over the protections in early 2013 and ended it a month later after de Blasio and other candidates vowed to protect workers if elected.

Local 1181 President Michael Cordiello supported de Blasio's plan, calling it "very much a step in the right direction to rectify the reckless policies of the Bloomberg administration."

De Blasio hasn't said whether he'll reinstate the seniority provision in contracts, but officials said he plans to introduce some protections for experienced workers.


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