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Correction
School bus drivers from Scott City, Poplar Bluff, Mo. and Clarkton, Mo. did not unionize as indicated in an article in Thursday's Southeast Missourian.
A statement from the Teamsters union said First Student workers in Cape Girardeau, Scott City, Poplar Bluff and Clarkton joined the union on Tuesday. Those towns referenced locations of First Student bus yards where votes to unionize occurred, said Galen Munroe, spokesman for the union.
The 55 drivers and aids who joined the union work in the Cape Girardeau School District, he said. The district contracts bus services with Cincinnati-based First Student. The Scott City School District owns its bus fleet and employs the bus drivers.
Original story modified with correction
School bus drivers in Cape Girardeau have unionized to lobby for better wages and working conditions.
Drivers and aids for First Student, a company that contracts bus services with school districts, made the agreement Tuesday, according to a release from the Teamsters union.
Dave Bruckerhoff, a business agent for Local 600 in Cape Girardeau, said 55 workers joined. "This is a hard-working group that's been terribly underpaid and who've had to deal with favoritism in their workplace. We're thrilled to be able to represent them," he said in a release.
Maureen Richmond, a spokeswoman for the Cincinnati-based First Student, said the company supports the workers' rights to unionize. She said First Student will work with the unions and workers to iron out any labor issues.
"We certainly feel as though we provide an excellent wage and benefits package," she said.
Calls to the Teamsters union were not returned.
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People can only take so much at times and it sounds like this bunch had enough.
Attention Parents: Be prepared to hear some morning that your children will not be picked-up as the school bus drivers are on strike. Just for your further information, the Teamsters Union could not care less about your children. They only know one word......Money!
....and so it goes~~
Union members are nothing but Communists who pay to be a member of the party.
Scott City Schools don't use First Student as their contracted bus drivers. They use teachers and other people of the community to drive their buses. So did the bus drivers from Scott City join the union or not....they were never mentioned after the first sentence.
This is exactly what schools and parents need now. I can see it all now. It's Monday morning and mom and dad are trying to get to work. They find out that the bus drivers are now on strike and they have to scamble to find a way to get their kids to school. It should be illegal to strike during the school year for any school employee or contracted employee (bus drivers) to strike during the school year.
congratulations drivers, you know have the right to pay union dues. That's about all a union can do for you.
Unions are destroying our economy. Collective bargaining should be illegal.
Bus drivers are the carriers of our most valuable resource. Maybe if they were paid as such these towns would not be facing unionization.
...and so it goes~~
OMG- these are the same bus driver who have been videotaped running stop signs. The same bus drivers who dropped off kids during the big spring flood two years ago and the kids had to walk through the flood waters to get home. The same bus drivers who have left kindergarten children on the bus because they forgot the child was on the bus.
I guess these bus drivers have the welfare attitude....they want money for nothing, and believe the unions can deliver.
Cape school district should look for a new contract and get a new bus system to operate the routes. Replace these incompetent jerks.
Will Jimmy Hoffa be leading this union????
I am suprised that any children still ride the bus based on the giant trafficc jams the parents create at the schools each morning dropping off their kids.
what a bunch of idiots posting on here. you want minimum wage people drving your kids to school? high turn over every week maybe? you oughta try it one week and see. you know nothing about a union or else you wouldn't say such things. why shouldn't people make a living wage? what a hateful bunch of narrow-minded small towners.
I agree with workingdude. If you have never been on a school bus loaded with a bunch of kids, then you have no right to gripe or condemn these people. It is a thankless job, but someone has to do it. If you really cared about your kids then you would put them first instead of condemning unions.
When I worked at a grocery store in St. Louis the union took good care of me. We were paid an hours' wage for every 15 minutes extra that we worked over our scheduled shift.
Unions have helped the workers. If you don't believe it, then read about the garment workers union and how they reshaped the garment industry after the 1910 Triangle Shirt Waist factory fire.
Sorry redpen, but this isn't 1910 and the garment sweatshops the unions were "helping" are now in China - and they are still sweatshops.
As noble as their cause may have been at origination, IMO, unions are now (and have been for decades) just another bunch of corrupt power and money mongers. And yes, I was a union member for 15 years. I changed careers to get out of the union.