The Fight for Contracts at Laidlaw and Durham Continues

    At the two terminals who previously voted to join Council 48, first contracts have not yet been settled. Laidlaw began a process of dragging their feet just as school was closing last Spring, and Durham began the new school year with a series of retaliatory action designed to divide and dispirit drivers. Unfortunately for the bosses, drivers have not given up at either company, and are putting renewed energy into building the unity and action that will be necessary for them to win fair first contracts. Dee Reynolds, who has worked with us for over a year now but who is on the staff of the International, is dedicating his time to working with bargaining committees and Contract Action Teams at both companies for a very public contract fight this fall. We are confident that the power of drivers standing together will deliver the contracts they deserve.

February 2002
Partial Victory for School Bus Drivers Forces Us to Work Harder
    We worked hard at organizing school bus drivers at Safe Line and Laidlaw. It began with a vision: 1,400 bus drivers without insurance, suffering low wages and no respect from the companies or the school systems they serve - and they deserved a better future. With strong support from several of our District Council 48 members as well as AFSCME International, we began our campaigns at Safe Line and Laidlaw on September 15, and found a high degree of interest in winning a better life among bus drivers we visited.
     As most of you know, we filed for elections at Safe Line, with 200 drivers, and three Laidlaw stations, with a total of 450 drivers. Safe Line voted on Dec. 5 and Laidlaw voted on the 6th.
    The results were mixed. Workers lost at three of the terminals, failing at the Mitchell St. Laidlaw station by only two votes (the count was 55-56 - considered a two-vote loss because tie votes go to the employer) and getting beaten by higher margins at Safe Line and Laidlaw West Allis. The bright spot was the Laidlaw Glendale station, where drivers stood up and voted 58-38 for their right to a voice at work.
    What happened at the three terminals we lost? Several factors always contribute to defeats in election campaigns, and these elections were no different. But one factor overrides all others:
    Both Laidlaw and Safe Line spent large amounts of tax dollars (the majority of their revenue at these terminals comes from contracts with school districts) fighting the drivers' right to organize.
    Drivers were paid to attend weekly meetings at which management showed extremely anti-union videotapes. For a time, Laidlaw ran continuous videotapes in the drivers' break rooms. Negative messages about the union were a fact of daily life. Much of the management campaign was about threatening workers. Voting for the union would mean going backwards - in pay, benefits, and rights as an individual worker. Having the union would mean strikes In the words of Laidlaw management, voting for the union would mean drivers would lose long-standing friendships, and even more dire consequences were intimated.
    While the companies threatened drivers with one hand, they attempted to buy them off with the other, providing for the first time food at employee meetings, and raffling off (with free raffle tickets) television sets just a few days before the election.
    There is no doubt that if drivers had a right to a fair election, we would have had different vote counts at the three losing terminals. Mitchell St, where we lost by two, would have a union today, and at a minimum West Allis Laidlaw and Safe Line would have been much closer.
    To try and win that right to a fair election, we have filed objections against management conduct at the National Labor Relations Board. The Board is currently investigating these objections, and should have an initial determination within a few weeks. If it were found that the companies violated workers' rights to a free and fair election, one possible outcome would be to set aside the election results and re-run the elections. Should that happen, our union is determined to go forward and try to win those re-runs.
    The fight for justice at the school bus terminals is not over. The victorious drivers at Glendale have begun their fight to win a fair contract, but we know that we cannot rely on their strength alone. They are the only group of bus drivers to have a union in the MPS system, and we know management will fight to prevent them from becoming an example of what workers can achieve when they stick together. Our job is to do everything we can to lead them in their fight for a fair contract, and at the same time maintain our focus on organizing more bus stations.
    The vision when we began was to make non-union drivers the minority.
     It remains so today.

December 1 2001
Organizer's Corner:
Management Pulls Out All Stops to Thwart Unionizing

    A strong voice for school bus drivers. More than 600 school bus drivers at three Laidlaw and one Safe Line terminals won that opportunity.
    They did it by exerting their rights, working with AFSCME 48 organizers, and building strong majorities. Now, elections to choose our union at each terminal will be held -- at Safe Line on Dec. 5 and at the three Laidlaw terminals Dec. 6.
    It all began with a Sept. 15 house call blitz, in which many of Council 48's members and staff participated. That laid the foundation for the campaign that followed. Since that blitz, the drivers have fought to build majorities, fighting to overcome the lack of benefits, lack of worker rights, low wages, and lack of respect from the companies they drive for.
     Imagine driving, without the assistance of another adult, a 100 foot vehicle loaded with 70 children through Milwaukee's streets. Imagine doing it under the constant pressure to be on time. And imagine doing it for less pay than a garbage truck driver gets - and without health insurance, paid holidays, or sick days. You will then know why drivers are standing up for their union.
     Managements at both companies are fighting hard to break the unity of the drivers. Paid meetings for drivers are being held on a weekly basis and negative letters claiming that our union is just out for drivers' dues dollars are now basic features of life at the terminals.
     In the meetings, the companies show professionally produced videos designed to confuse and scare workers with talks of strikes, bankruptcy, and implications that drivers can go backward in pay and benefits if they choose the union. Because both Laidlaw and Safe Line are entirely taxpayer funded -- by monies paid through the school districts they serve (mostly Milwaukee Public Schools) --- they are using your tax dollars to fight a basic right of American workers.
    So on Tuesday November 14, a delegation of community, religious, and labor leaders went to each terminal on a "Justice Bus" to confront management on their campaign tactics and spending. We hope this can be the beginning of exposing such actions, with an eye to the day when our community will see oppression of worker rights as oppression of civil rights, and will respond to such behavior with a resounding "no."
     Despite all of these tactics, we know that in these hard-fought private sector campaigns the workers who stand together can win together. Indeed, many drivers at these terminals have shown tremendous courage and given lots of time as members of the four Organizing Committees to display leadership and show their co-workers the path to winning.

October 2001
Organizer's Corner:
Why You Are Crucial to Our Future Success
    Our Union, like many others, has been beset by job loss through privatization and other avenues of public employment downsizing. While it is clear that we must aggressively fight to prevent these job losses, it is equally clear that we have not, and will not, win all of those battles. As our membership decreases, so does our power to win -- in politics, in bargaining, in all the bread-and-butter fights that we have.
    In the face of all this, our only alternative that preserves and increases our power is to organize as many of the thousands of unorganized workers in Milwaukee County as we possibly can. Bringing these workers into our Union gives them the opportunity to fight for the rights, pay, and benefits that we have won. But every new group of workers we organize also benefits our current membership by increasing our overall power and visibility as an effective organization.
    One of the big obstacles we face in organizing is that many unorganized workers in Milwaukee simply don't see the labor movement as a vehicle for progress. Talking to many of these people, we will hear of wages, benefits and working conditions substantially below those enjoyed by virtually any union member in a comparable industry. Ask that same worker if they want the union, and a good number of them will tell you different versions of "no." Because it takes a strong majority to win in the face of employer anti-campaigns, our ability to organize these doubtful workers, to bring them to believe in the power of a union, is crucial to our chances of success.
    Workers who are already in our Union, who have seen the benefits, are uniquely equipped to help these workers get over their doubts. We have a great advantage over employers in organizing - - without question, union workers do better than non-union workers in wages, benefits, and working condition rights. To realize that advantage, we have to have credibility with the unorganized. And no one has more credibility than you, an organized member who has experienced the power of unionization.
     Bridging the gap in the mind of a non-union worker, so that they come to see and believe in the power of being union, is what organizing is all about. As a member of a union, you have the opportunity to not just be part of this process. With the credibility you bring to discussions with workers, you can be the key part.
    Working in Milwaukee has for many workers meant declining living standards despite more hours of work. Participating in this training is your opportunity to be a key part of winning fairness for them in Milwaukee's workplaces while building the power of your own Union.
    To participate, to register for future training, or is you have with any questions or comments, please contact Pete Swinford at (414) 344-6868, ext. 227.

© 2001 AFSCME District Council 48
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