School Bus Drivers Vote to Strike in Right to Work South Carolina

Here is some good coverage on strike activity in the State of South Carolina by school bus drivers
by Rosa Shahnazarian of the the World Socialist Web Site. The State has been a Right to Work state since 1954. Bus drivers and attendants in every other South Carolina school district are barred by state law from striking and collective bargaining because they are public sector employees. Workers in Dorchester, Charleston and Beaufort County were able to join the Teamsters because their employer, Durham School Services, is a private company. Durham, the second-largest provider of student transportation services in the US, is a subsidiary of National Express Group, a profitable multinational corporation based in Britain.

South Carolina’s State Board of Education voted unanimously to allow Durham School Services to hire scabs from other states to transport children for up to 90 days in two school districts if unionized bus drivers and monitors go on strike. The strike-breaking measure was prompted by strike authorization votes by unionized school bus drivers and monitors in both the Charleston County School District and Summerville's Dorchester County School District 2, who voted unanimously to strike if negotiations fail between Teamsters Local 509 officials and their employer, Illinois-based Durham School Services. These workers have been without a contract since August.

These changes are part of a continuing effort in state government, led by Republican Governor Nikki Haley, to privatize the bus system. South Carolina is the only state that owns and maintains a statewide bus fleet. The efforts in the state government to privatize the school bus system are aimed at serving the interests of private companies, while divesting districts of the responsibility to pay for workers’ benefits. Durham School Services has better driver retention than local counties that do not contract with private companies, largely as a result of better pay. Low school bus driver retention has been a problem in the state for over a decade. Any reduction in pay of workers at Durham would likely result in a return to previous low rates of driver retention.

Charleston school officials claim that the drivers are currently paid an average of $14.65 per hour and that the union has requested a roughly 44 percent pay and benefit increase in the first year of a new contract and a 20 percent increase in the two years after that. Teamsters Local 509 President Fletcher refused to provide the correct numbers, claiming that he “want[s] to see how far they’ll go with their lies.” However, by keeping negotiations secret, the World Socialist Web Site maintains that Fletcher is acting in collusion with company management to prevent any broader discussion among workers of the conditions faced by Teamsters Local 509 drivers and attendants. The union would prefer to isolate any strike that takes place.