As the school year begins Wednesday, the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union says students will still have transportation to and from school — even as contracted bus drivers and monitors remain locked out from their jobs.
Unionized drivers and monitors with Vermont Teamsters Local 597 started picketing last week after their employer, Travel Kuz, locked them out of the company’s Vermont headquarters due to fraught contract negotiations. But Windham Southeast Superintendent Mark Speno wrote in a statement Tuesday that replacement drivers will be brought in to cover routes for the supervisory union’s 10 schools in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney and Vernon.
Speno wrote that the supervisory union was assured that “replacement drivers are prepared to step in to ensure that transportation runs as smoothly as possible.”
“Our hope and expectation is that an agreement will be reached quickly between the two sides for the benefit of all involved, and especially for our students,” he wrote.
Curtis Clough, president of the Vermont Teamsters Local 597, said Tuesday that the union will continue to picket every day at the Travel Kuz headquarters in Gill, Massachusetts, and outside Windham Southeast schools while the lockout is ongoing.
The union met with the company — affiliated with Beacon Mobility — on Friday, and contract negotiations are active, but Clough does not foresee a quick end to the lockout due to “big concessions” the company asked for during the last bargaining meeting.
The concessions include restrictions on family and medical leave and prohibiting drivers from taking on extra hours, which “would considerably dilute the earning ability of the drivers that work there,” Clough said. He added that the company’s proposal would also take away bus monitors’ pay guarantees.
The union plans to demonstrate outside of Brattleboro Union High School on Wednesday, the Academy School on Thursday and Green Street School on Friday in Brattleboro, Clough said.
Travel Kuz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Correction: A previous version of this story mischaracterized the type of labor dispute between the employer and its employees.
