Bus drivers and monitors for Windham Southeast Supervisory Union schools picketed in Brattleboro Friday afternoon in front of Academy School and Brattleboro Union High School as tense negotiations continue with their private employer.
The student transportation workers, represented by the Vermont Teamsters Local 597 union, have been locked out of their place of employment since Wednesday by Travel Kuz, which has offices in Brattleboro and northern Massachusetts. According to its website, the company became affiliated in 2023 with Beacon Mobility, a firm with school bus companies nationwide.
“The employer is not letting anybody go to work until they agree to their terms and conditions, so they’ve locked us out to try to put pressure on the group,” Curtis Clough, president of Teamsters Local 597, said in an interview.
The school year begins for students in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, like many others across the state, on Aug. 27. In addition to Brattleboro schools, the supervisory union also includes schools in Dummerston, Guilford, Putney and Vernon.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters claimed in a press release that if the bar on bus drivers and monitors working continues into next week, its members are concerned it could mean that students enrolled in Windham Southeast schools will not have bus transportation.
An email from Travel Kuz said the temporary lockout at the Brattleboro office was implemented earlier this week after no agreement was reached with the union, but that the lockout will not affect student transportation routes.
The email from the company said that the union’s request would result in over a 40% increase in costs to the company, “an unrealistic burden under fixed school district contracts,” and that the company is prepared to meet with the union to find a “fair, balanced resolution.”
In addition to claims it cannot pay workers what they’re asking for, Travel Kuz has held back retirement matches and health care premiums and frequently failed to pay workers on time, Clough said.
Teamsters Local 597 asked to open bargaining in February and the union’s contract expired in June, Clough said. Between May and July, there was a period of several weeks when negotiations were at a standstill because the company refused to meet with the union. It has been difficult scheduling a time to meet with companies to continue negotiations after their last bargaining session Aug. 7, he added.
Teamsters Local 597 filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board due to Travel Kuz withholding a revenue contract document that the union requested and the lockout notice. This along with refusing to negotiate for weeks displays the “bad faith bargaining” of the employer, Clough said.
Catherine Cleveland, a union member, said she was looking forward to her first day of school as a bus driver after receiving her certification in June. She worked as a bus monitor with the company before that, and said that she was injured on the job a year ago and is “still fighting workmen’s comp claims.” Beyond higher wages, Cleveland said she would like the company to demonstrate more appreciation for the work and responsibilities of bus drivers and monitors safely transporting students.
Cleveland said the children will be negatively impacted if the lockout continues even if the company sends out-of-state drivers and monitors to serve the Windham Southeast schools.
“They don’t know the children. They don’t know the schools,” Cleveland said, “A lot of them probably don’t know a lot of the areas, so even just being out driving a route is going to be a challenge.”
The Windham Southeast Supervisory Union superintendent could not be immediately reached for comment.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Academy School, and misidentified a town within the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union.
