Talks between Teamsters, bus company hit road block
Contract talks between Laidlaw Education Services and Teamsters Local 491 apparently have hit a bump in the road. Teamsters Local 491 represents about 200 bus drivers in the Albert Gallatin Area and Laurel Highlands school districts in Fayette County and Southeastern Greene and Jefferson-Morgan school districts in Greene County.
The Fayette County operations are based in Smithfield, and the Greene buses are stationed in Dry Tavern.
On Friday, according to Vito Dragone, Teamsters Local 491 secretary-treasurer, representatives for Laidlaw “walked out’ of a negotiating session.
Ron Ferek, Laidlaw district manager, did not comment on that statement other than to say he did not want to negotiate the contract in the media.
“We are willing to sit down and work this out at any time,” Ferek said, adding that Laidlaw does not want a work stoppage. “I don’t the think the Teamsters want one, either.”
The current five-year contract will expire at midnight Aug. 31.
Dragone said the Teamsters and Laidlaw negotiators already have met about eight times since June.
“One session was already canceled by the company. In our last meeting, which was held (Friday), the company walked out of negotiations,” Dragone said.
He added that the primary issue of discussion concerns health care, as well as wages and working conditions.
“I don’t believe the company is negotiating in good faith when they leave the negotiating table. That leaves us with no other option than to schedule meetings, update our people and take the economic action that may be necessary,” Dragone said, noting that “economic action” could entail a strike.
“We are talking about a strike. We hope that’s not necessary, but obviously the company is leaving us no other position,” Dragone added.
Ferek said Laidlaw “continues to want to negotiate.
“We welcome the opportunity to meet at any time. The last thing Laidlaw wants to see is a work stoppage that would affect the children. We have a couple of issues that are of major concern to us and want to work through them to reach an agreement,” Ferek said.
Laidlaw Education Services, with headquarters in Naperville, Ill., operates buses in the United States and Canada and has about 40,000 employees, Ferek said.
Although its roots are in Canada, Laidlaw in the 1980s began buying bus companies in the Pittsburgh/southwestern Pennsylvania region, including in this area, Parnham Bus Lines, Burke Bus Lines, Central Cab and Radcliffe Bus Lines, Ferek said.