The union for bus drivers who serve disabled students at Portland Public Schools (PPS) is planning a rally before tonight's school board meeting to draw attention to its prolonged contract negotiations with PPS. This comes nine months after the union's contract with PPS expired.

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), which represents 105 drivers who work for PPS, is demanding higher wages and benefits for part-time workers, among other things.

ATU spokesperson Andrew Riley says PPS has responded to the negotiations with a call for a pay freeze.

“From day one they said there was a wage freeze for two years," Riley says. ATU's drivers serve disabled students, and they get paid over a dollar less per hour compared to the contracted drivers who serve the larger student population.

“The folks who are transporting folks with disabilities are paid significantly less,” he says. “Why is this kind of transportation uniquely devalued?”

ATU drivers also make considerably less than the drivers who deliver food to Portland schools. ATU member and school bus driver Beth Blumklotz says “we’re trying to make the same as all the other drivers in PPS. They’re not seeing the value in what we do or the students we transport."

Riley says the union is just asking for a living wage. “People rely on food banks,” he says. “People are driving for Uber in their spare time.” One union member is currently homeless, while others live outside of town due to the lack of affordable housing.

The union will hold the rally outside of PPS' Blanchard Educational Service Center, 501 N Dixon, starting at 5 pm and lasting until the school board meeting begins at 6 pm.