Bus drivers' union fuming over benefits

There are 75 Santa Rosa County bus drivers and monitors who as of July 1 are no longer covered by insurance.

Many of those have life threatening health issues in their family.

"Some of our drivers are driving because of the insurance," said Mike Lowery, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1395, who represents the 280 drivers and monitors.

"Durham Bus Services took over school bus services in the county July 1. Even after indicating that they would recognize all aspects of the contract, including the employer contribution for these 75 to keep their insurance through the summer, now they have backed out of paying that

summer insurance."

Tuesday, the ATU Local 1395 filed a grievance of unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board in New Orleans against Durham.

"We as a union had worked very hard to get a group coverage through Blue Cross/ Blue Shield with Laidlaw/First Student as part of our current contract," Lowery explained. "When the school district fired Laidlaw/First Student and decided to hire Durham for the upcoming school year, we got concerned about the insurance issue and the contract overall. The 75 people who have health insurance under the group plan outlined in the contract had paid their contribution for 12 months of coverage so they could get coverage through July and August. We are talking some people here who have spouses with cancer, one person who has a child on a feeding tube, and one lady who is expecting a baby in July."

So Laidlaw/First Student agreed to refund the 75 employees' insurance contributions for the summer so they could give those monies to Durham for summer insurance coverage. "We had our first meeting as a union with Durham on May 20," explained Mike Scott of Navarre, Senior Vice President of ATU Local 1395. "It seemed like they were going to do the right thing as far as the total contract, including insurance. They said they would honor the entire contract. Our secretary/treasurer of the union's local has already collected checks from the bus drivers to send to Durham for the summer insurance coverage."

Even an ATU International Vice President out of Washington, D.C., got involved in the insurance issue.

"Gary Rauen, our ATU International VP, contacted Durham Services about the issue, and (Durham) asked for a list of all the 75 drivers or monitors who had insurance under the group plan in the contract, and what type of insurance they had. He was encouraged that Durham was going to make sure these people were covered during the transition," Lowery said.

"But now Durham has taken another position. They are saying they have insurance offered by their company to other communities, and their open enrollment period begins Sept. 1, and all Santa Rosa drivers and monitors hired by them can sign up then. That means the actual insurance would not even kick in until Oct. 1, and we do not even know what kind of insurance it is. We fought hard to get Laidlaw to offer a full-coverage plan, not supplemental."

The local union officers have been asking the school board and Superintendent of School John Rogers for help.

"We sent letters from several of the union officers to the School Board and administration last week begging for their help," Lowery said. "Since they were the ones hiring Durham, and there is a transition period, we were hoping they could either pressure Durham to fulfill this part of the contract. In any case, we feel the School Board needs to do something to make sure its bus drivers do not go without much-needed insurance because of a decision that board made."

School Board member Ed Gray III of Gulf Breeze said it is not the responsibility of Durham to pay for that gap in insurance coverage.

"These people are not even their employees yet - and may never be," Gray said.

"In turn, it is certainly not the responsibility of Laidlaw/First Student to pay for them any more, since they are no longer employees of that company ."

"The only thing I can see these people doing is paying the full premium during the gap of coverage under the federal government's COBRA law. It allows them to keep the coverage they had under the group insurance, but they just have to pay the entire premium, including what their employer was paying until they get another group insurance plan in place. It is expensive, but at least they would still have insurance."

Scott said many of these people cannot afford insurance, and that is why they are driving school buses.

"I do not see how Durham can recognize and agree to part of the contract, and not the whole," Scott said. "And they certainly cannot just impose on our drivers their insurance anyway. By law, that is something to be negotiated by the union.

"People are panicking that Tuesday, July 1, they are without any insurance coverage. How do you get cancer treatments with no insurance?"