Bus transportation is in doubt over pay concerns

Busses are expected to pick up their first students Monday morning, but the students might be left on the side of the road.
Evangeline Parish bus drivers contracted with First Student held a meeting Monday evening at the St. John’s Family Life Center to discuss concerns about pay they believe they should have received when schools closed because of the pandemic. Over a dozen drivers showed up to the meeting. First Student supervisor Hubert Mabe and district route manager Will Love were set to attend the meeting, and members of the school board were also invited. However, due to a dispute about where the meeting should be, Mabe and Love did not show up. School board members were also not present.
According to Susan Griffith, who drives the P5 bus for Chicot and Pine Prairie, she had a meeting with Love last week. “He asked us in good faith to start our bus routes on Monday morning, giving him a chance to work things out,” she said. She invited him to another meeting to hear the voices of the drivers. On Monday, the day of the meeting at the church center, Griffith said Mabe told her Love did not want to meet at the church. He wanted instead to meet at the First Student office, which only allows 23 people at a time due to COVID-19 restrictions. Mabe had offered to have the meeting in multiple sessions to maintain social distancing. Griffith told Mabe they could do it all at once and have more people at the Family Life Center, adding it was important for everyone’s voice to be heard. According to her, Love refused to meet at the church. “To me that sends a clear message they don’t want to work with us,” said Griffith.
The drivers had a meeting amongst themselves in the church center. Drivers did not want to provide their names, with the exception of Griffith who has become the spokesperson for the group. Another driver addressed the group, saying First Student is in the middle of a buyout, and the headquarters for the parent company, FirstGroup, is a Scottish transportation company in the United Kingdom. She described the company as being well-off, financially, and said First Student “is not going to come out of their pocket to pay us. They depend on our state and local governments to come out of pocket. You have some states that actually have the budget to where their First Student employees are paid year-in and year-out, through summer break and all that, because their local and state government pays First Student to pay their drivers. Meaning, the state and the parish have to have that money in their budget. We do not have that money in our budget. It’s not there.” She added, “First Student doesn’t want to pay. Our local parish government doesn’t want to pay. We are about 95% positive we’re not going to get the money we’re asking for.”
Some of the drivers also took issue with the Evangeline Parish School Board because they feel the funds were available with money from the CARES Act. They also wanted school board members present at the meeting and were left disappointed when no members showed up.
Some drivers were able to get unemployment, but drivers who have second jobs could not claim the benefit. The drivers who could not receive unemployment set up a petition called “Most First Student Drivers in Evangeline Parish were not paid COVID pay during shutdown” on Change.org. As of Wednesday, the petition had 226 signatures. These unpaid drivers are asking for a reversal in the decision made from certain members of the Evangeline Parish School Board to not keep these drivers compensated. The petition states the School Board “showed no support or concern for the impact the lack of mandated COVID pay would have on these drivers. These school bus drivers are citizens of Evangeline Parish and members of our communities.” The petition continues: “We must show support to those drivers who were not compensated and had a loss of income through no fault of their own.”
The petition also foreshadows a strike if requests are not met. At Monday’s meeting Griffith said, “We told them if they don’t come to a conclusion about what they wanted to do, then we weren’t going to drive. We don’t want to do that to the kids. We like our jobs and we want to drive. Those are our kids,” said Griffith.
One bus driver said at Monday’s meeting “Big companies do not want to hear grievances without a union lawyer.” The drivers do not have a union or a lawyer. This leaves the group with little bargaining power, and they fear they might have to make a statement on the first day of school when they may or may not be there to pick up students. “Actions have consequences,” said Griffith. “I told Mr. Will, if we, in good faith, crank our busses on Monday and drive for you like you ask us to, that’s a sign of weakness. He said, ‘No, that’s a sign of unity and that y’all are going to give me a chance to rectify the situation.’ I told him I can’t speak for everybody.” As for whether or not they will be there to pick up students the first day of school, Griffith told the drivers there is strength in numbers, but each person should do what they feel is right for them.
After much discussion, the bus drivers decided to return to Mabe one more time with requests for compensation for seven weeks with no pay. In addition to backpay, the bus drivers are also requesting pay for a 20-hour work week because they feel their bus duties have increased while their hours have decreased. This is due to having to disinfect busses before and after routes which means longer pick-up and drop-off times, meaning the drivers get home later and start their routes earlier. They are also asking to be paid during unforeseen circumstances such as inclement weather. The drivers would also like to be compensated if they test positive for COVID-19 and have to quarantine up to 10 days. They would also like the same safety measures on the busses as in the schools, i.e. temperature checks and face masks. “We are the first person children are in contact with when entering the bus. How can you ensure our safety is not at risk?” said Griffith. “We would also like some type of hazard pay during this time, especially if not all safety measures are met.”
School board member and Transportation Committee Chairman Arthur Savoy commented on Monday’s bus driver meeting, saying he and other school board members wanted to attend the meeting, but their lawyer advised against it. “Our lawyer said the best thing to do is not go to it because it’s First Student’s employees and we don’t want to tell them what to do with their employees,” said Savoy. He also said the board had two meetings with First Student several months ago. “First Student did try to blame it on us. We were going to help the bus drivers, but they wanted money to pay the whole company. We twice brought it up where we wanted to pay the bus drivers. We told Mabe and Tony Vidrine (the regional vice president at the time) we wanted to help the drivers.”
When asked about the bus drivers’ questions as to why the board did not pay First Student with an $800,000 surplus of money the board received through the CARES Act, Savoy said, “We bought Chromebooks for every student, temperature check machines, laptops for all the teachers, and everything to keep everyone safe.” He also said the contract the board had with First Student was for days worked, not 180 days. Since he has been chairman for around five years, Savoy said he has “met with Mr. Tony for hours and hours to make sure these bus drivers were being taken care of. I’ve bent over backwards for these people.” He added, “The First Student contract expires in around 22 months and we don’t know what’s going to happen. They’re good people, but they’re not taking care of the people they should. I don’t think they’re going beyond to help take care of these bus drivers.”
Savoy also said several months ago he had asked Mabe to let the drivers go so they could draw unemployment. “He wouldn’t let them go so they could draw unemployment because he wanted them back in the fall. I think if First Student would have done their job from the beginning, we wouldn’t be going through this now.”
Tuesday morning, Hubert Mabe said he could not comment on the meeting, adding that media inquires should be asked to First Student spokesperson Jay Brock. When asked for Love’s contact information, Mabe said Love would also defer questions to Brock. A call to Brock was not returned. Mabe, however, did confirm to Griffith another meeting today at 6 p.m. at First Student.