FirstGroup Workers in New Jersey and Illinois Vote for Teamster Representation

[DainBramaged]

http://www.teamster.org/08news/nr_080110_2.asp

FirstGroup workers in New Jersey and Illinois overwhelmingly voted this week to retain the Teamsters Union as their bargaining representative, joining the more than 5,000 bus drivers, aides and mechanics who have become proud members of the union since May 2006.

In Lafayette, New Jersey, a First Student yard with 102 workers stood together in a fight for better wages, benefits and a safe workplace. The group of bus and van drivers, transit drivers, attendants, monitors, aides, mechanics and lot workers won representation with Local 102 in Springfield, New Jersey, as 71 percent chose the Teamsters.

“I am thrilled that we are now Teamsters,” said Diana Talmadge, a monitor at First Student, “My husband has been a Teamster for over 28 years and I have seen firsthand what a union can do. The union stood behind my husband and that’s what we need here.”

The victory is part of an effort to organize private school bus drivers across the country. Driving Up Standards is a national campaign by the Teamsters, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Transport and General Workers’ (T&G) union to improve safety, service and work standards in the private school bus industry. Since 2006, more than 1,000 private school bus workers have joined the Teamsters Union in New Jersey alone.