Portland Public Schools (PPS) is now entering its ninth month of contract negotiations with the district’s school bus driver union over stagnant wages, allegedly unsafe transportation practices, and benefits for part-time employees. With such long delays and perceived apathy on the part of the school district, union representatives are getting antsy for the process to resolve.
The union, made up of around 105 drivers who serve the district’s disabled students, is represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 (ATU). Drivers are currently working under a contract that expired in June 2017. Starting drivers currently make $16.25 per hour, and the district has proposed a wage freeze for two years at that rate. But union organizers say the rate is too low for drivers to live in the expensive city they serve.
“We have drivers who live in Camas, Canby, and Tigard,” says driver and union organizer Beth Blumklotz. “We have one driver who’s homeless.”