News
Back on the Clock In Stafford County

Virginia bus drivers organize, unite with teachers, and win compensation for 'off the clock' work.

Organizing has strengthened this team of Stafford County transportation workers and managers. And that'll mean real changes in everything from policy to pay.

"It's not in the budget. . . It's a condition of employment. . . There's no recourse. . ."

Before they organized in 1999, school transportation employees in Stafford County, Virginia, routinely heard these management responses to questions about compensation for tasks drivers were performing without pay, everything from submitting to federally mandated random drug tests to appearing in court as witnesses to traffic violations.

The Stafford County school district, less than 50 miles south of Washington, D.C., had enough money to build new schools and hire new teachers, but it was still asking its bus drivers and monitors to work "off the clock"--in violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act--and on the clock at wages of up to $3 an hour less than their counterparts in neighboring counties.

"In the back of my mind," recalls Stafford trainer/driver Annette Hall, "I thought, 'This isn't right. We're getting big enough as a district to do things differently.'"

Drivers, bus monitors, and mechanics came to realize they needed a smarter way to assert their rights than scattershot speeches at school board meetings and gripes at district-run "rap" sessions. They needed a collective voice and professional backup.

What these support professionals needed, in fact, was right under their noses all along: the NEA-affiliated Stafford Education Association.

Even without a state bargaining law, SEA had won solid gains for Stafford teachers, like paid health insurance for retirees, and built a productive relationship with administrators and local residents. In 1999, this relationship generated a 98 percent vote in favor of a local property tax increase to professionalize teacher salaries.

Word travels.

"After I had spoken to a school board meeting on behalf of our members in the spring of 1999," says SEA President Rebecca Danello, "two drivers came up to me, said they'd like to join SEA, and asked for information."

Since that encounter, Stafford transportation employees have been overwhelmed by the solidarity of teacher colleagues and the professional support of Virginia Education Association staffers, from their UniServ director to VEA attorneys in Richmond.

They've reciprocated by joining the Association en masse--at last count, 188 of 200 transportation staffers had become Association members--and participating in SEA in a very big way.

The local's transportation unit now has a chair, Annette Hall, and two co-chairs, Jeanna Brown and Linda Powell, plus a secretary, Kathy Mathis, and no fewer than 19 Association reps to cover every middle and high school.

In a non-bargaining, "right-to-work" state like Virginia, big membership numbers and active member involvement can be a critical equalizer.

In Stafford County, this formula has produced:

• Payment for work performed. Right after signing up with SEA, Stafford drivers worked with VEA's legal staff to document district violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and what it would cost to rectify the situation. A group of drivers, accompanied by UniServ Director Mike Sowder, then met with administrators and outlined their case for a federal wage-and-hour complaint.

  That homework paid off. The district agreed to compensate workers, as of last July, for time spent on everything from submitting to random drug tests to driving to and from a school to transport students for field trips.

• A role in drafting written district policy. For the first time, drivers have helped revise the handbook of rules and regs for Stafford County employees.

  "We went through the book, deleting and adding things, like accident procedures and locations of fuel stations for the benefit of new drivers," reports driver chair Hall. "Then we met with Transportation Director Larry Himes and got some things changed in print."

• A positive relationship with administrators. Himes and Assistant Transportation Director Margaret Hill "have been great to work with" since the staff organized, notes Mike Sowder. "They're always willing to meet with us--in fact, I often advise people to talk to Larry about individual problems and I don't hear back from them again!"

• A smarter way to increase pay. At press time, Stafford transportation employees had completed a 21-question survey--developed by Virginia Education Association researchers--on pay, benefits, and working conditions, while Annette Hall had closely examined the pay scale for needed structural changes.

  "After I present teachers' 2000-2001 pay and benefit proposals to the school board," says local President Danello, "I'll turn to Annette, who will do the same for support staff." Stay tuned.

  n An even better relationship with teachers--and the community. Danello, the district's English and drama coordinator, says that transportation employees are "very comfortable" with certified staffers and will stand to benefit from SEA's commitment to professional development and community outreach.

  "We can't educate kids unless they get to school, and drivers are often the first adult school employees they see in the morning--it's important not to discount that," she stresses. "Their participation in our NEA local affiliate makes everyone in the greater community aware that everything we do in education is a team effort, be it in the classroom or on the bus route."

• Strength in the workplace. Despite Virginia's non-bargaining environment, "Management realizes that VEA and NEA are a force to be reckoned with," says UniServ Director Mike Sowder.

  "We have almost 1,000 members in Stafford County, 57,000 members in Virginia, and over 2.5 million members in the nation," Sowder adds. "We've got more clout than any other organization in the United States, and administrators and school boards know it, because they're actively involved in elections."

  What does all that mean for the average bus driver? Concludes Annette Hall: "A supervisor thinks twice before doing something."

For more information, contact UniServ Director Mike Sowder at 540/347-7801.

Basics for Beginners
It All Started in 'Spotsy'

Transportation employees in Virginia's Stafford County didn't have to start from scratch; they followed a path blazed 10 years earlier by colleagues in neighboring Spotsylvania County.

Today "Spotsy" drivers are 95 percent organized and have the pay, benefits, and respect to show for it.

Substitute drivers in Spotsylvania County get $9 an hour, regular drivers and "contracted subs" get nearly $12, and the most senior drivers can earn $75.78 a day.

Contracted drivers enjoy health insurance, a four-hour daily pay minimum, 10 sick and two personal days a year, and 30 minutes of daily pay for chores like fueling. They're entitled to 10 paid hours of in-service a year and two paid professional days to attend NEA state affiliate conferences.

Over a decade, Spotsylvania ESP have learned they must:

1. Stick together. "You've got to get united, stand up, and do something," says trainer/driver Pat Stanley, driver spokesperson for the Spotsylvania Education Association. "We won a decent wage by refusing at one point to drive field trips, which were optional, non-contract work."

2. Make management manage. Spotsy drivers have taught administrators how to do their jobs better--by always pushing for a defined chain of command, procedures, and employee guidelines. The result: a solid working relationship.

3. Sign up those non-members. Non-stop organizing pays off in Spotsylvania County. "If you have a problem, the first thing a supervisor asks you is, 'Are you a member?'" notes Stanley. "You definitely get treated differently when you're an Association member. We get respect now."

For more information, contact Pat Stanley at psta668648@aol.com.

Kudos To ...

• . . . The California Teachers Association and other affiliates of California's Retirement Coalition have successfully lobbied for $12.1 billion in pension improvements for members of the State Teachers Retirement System.

  Among the many gains: STRS members with at least 25 years of service will now have benefits based on their highest earning year. Those with 30 or more years will receive a longevity bonus.

  "This package will help maintain teaching as a true career," says Beverly Carlson, chair of the CTA State Council's Retirement Committee. "We want newcomers to see this as a profession--not a short-term job where they quit and do something else."

• . . . ESP in most of Maryland's Eastern Shore counties don't enjoy bargaining rights, but that hasn't stopped the Teachers Association of Somerset County from winning an average one-year pay increase of 15.6 percent for paraeducators.

  TASC built community support for a raise, and chief para spokesperson Juanita Faye Hoffman entered "meet-and-confer" talks with the school board accompanied by reps from every school. Her presentation on the pay gap between paras and other Somerset ESP won the day.

• . . . In contract talks last summer, teacher members of the Absecon (New Jersey) Education Association refused to settle early on some "nice numbers" until the needs of ESP members were met first. That solidarity netted raises over three years of 19.5 percent for teachers and 12 to 30-plus percent for ESP, reinstatement of dependent health coverage for non-tenured teachers, and increases for sick leave buyback and tuition reimbursement.

• . . . In two days of strikes last fall, the 4,700-member Buffalo (New York) Teachers Federation braved massive legal penalties--from two days of docked teacher pay for each day on the picket line, to the eight-day jailing of BTF President Phil Rumore--to fight for the needs of kids and schools.

  The resulting settlement, totalling $7.5 million more than the school board's "final" offer before the strike, reverses cuts in grades one to three art, music, and physical education programs over a period of three years and reduces class size in settings where special needs students are mainstreamed.

  The new pact also increases funding for the purchase and distribution of classroom supplies and protects early retirement incentives and retiree health benefits, which had been targeted by the board for deep cuts.

  Buffalo strikers received strong support from other area unions, the working press, the public, and NEA-New York. (For more, go to www.neany.org/advocate/3.html.)