Anxious bus drivers seek insurance coverage

Pam Brannon/Gulf Breeze News Three bus drivers who have been hired by Durham but have lost their insurance this summer are (left to right) Donna Tillery with her twin boys (front, left) Corbin and Trustan; Teresa Coffield; and Arlene Wright with four of her five children (front, center) Autumn McKinney, Timothy Wright, Brian McKinney, and held by mom is Allison McKinney. "Insurance is not a union issue. It is a human issue," says Donna Tillery, who has driven school bus in the Santa Rosa County School District for the past seven and a half years.

Tillery is one of more than 70 school district bus drivers or monitors who lost their health insurance July 1 because she was covered under a group policy through Laidlaw/First Student, Inc.

June 30 was the last day that company served as contractor for the school district.

After 10 years of service by Laidlaw/First Student, the school board fired that company and hired a new bus contractor in April, Durham Bus Services, which took over July 1.

Ironically, the same day Tillery lost her health insurance was the same day she accepted a job with the new bus contractor.

"Everyone from school board members to school district administrators had been telling us Durham did not really have to honor the part of our contract that gives us group health insurance through the summer because we were not yet employees of Durham," Tillery said.

"So when we lost our insurance from First Student on July 1, no one in the school administration would expect Durham to follow the contract on the group insurance because we didn't work for the new company. We kept being told the contract would only apply to actual employees of Durham. But I - we - do work for Durham now, since they sent me a letter offering me a job, and I accepted on July 1. But I still do not have insurance to cover me through the summer."

Everyone who received letters from Durham last week was asked to respond by July 1 if they wanted a job next school year.

Tillery is secretary/treasurer for the union - Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1395 - that represents the bus drivers and monitors.

Arlene Wright, a single mother of five, is on the union negotiating team and lost her insurance July 1. She also received her letter with a job offer from Durham and accepted it July 1.

"I was there, at the table, when we sat down with the Durham people back in May. One of the first things we brought up was the insurance," Wright said. " We were so afraid of losing it over the summer, and we had fought and worked so hard to get the coverage we had through Blue Cross/Blue Shield with Laidlaw. The Durham people, including Dave (Brabender), who is their Regional Vice President in charge of our area, seemed so nice and assured us we would not have a problem with the insurance and we would not be left without any all summer long," Wright said.

"Now they have changed their position. I can't believe it."

Wright has five children, and her three-year-old daughter has special needs.

"Their dad has some insurance, but it doesn't cover everything we need, especially with my daughter's physical therapy and speech therapy expenses," Wright explained. "I thought I was doing the right thing by taking a school bus driving job. I could be home with my kids - especially my 3-year-old - most of the day and still make some money, and get the insurance to help us out. Now we are being told Durham will offer us some insurance later. That doesn't help me over the summer months, and will my daughter even be accepted with pre-existing conditions?"

She has driven for Santa Rosa County School District for five years.

Durham has told the bus drivers that there will be an open enrollment for the insurance program they offer employees nationwide on Sept. 1. If their new employees sign up and are accepted, coverage would begin Oct. 1. With Laidlaw/First Student, the bus drivers had paid their employee contribution through the summer, as they did every year, so there would be no lapse in coverage.

An individual employee's share of the group coverage the union had negotiated with Laidlaw was $113.21 a month. The employer paid 75 percent of the monthly premium for individuals, and 70 percent of the monthly premium for those who elected family or spousal coverage included. The monthly employee share for those paying for employee/family coverage was $367.42 a month - and that was only 30 percent of the premium's cost. The employee's cost for an employee/child was $256.16 a month.

"Some school board members and administrators have told us just to pay the COBRA costs over the summer," Tillery said. "I don't know anyone who has lost their insurance who can pay the COBRA costs to keep their current insurance until the open enrollment period with Durham. And to just go someplace else to get insurance isn't so easy. Jobs are not a dime a dozen right now."

COBRA is an option under federal law that allows employees who lose a group coverage plan to pick up both the employee and employer's share of the premium costs to keep their coverage until they get another insurance policy in place - and they can pay month by month. .

Tillery said she certainly could not afford to pay the COBRA costs or to convert to a private Blue Cross/ Blue Shield coverage plan.

"I checked to see what the COBRA cost for my individual policy would be, and it would cost me $452.82 a month for that three or four months. Then I checked to see what a conversion policy would be, where they just take the same coverage and convert me over to an individual private rate, and that was $752 a month. They determine your conversion rate according to age and gender and the county you live in. I am making unemployment over the summer and cannot afford either cost."

Tillery said the union's position is that Durham cannot accept part of the union's contract and take out the insurance part if they do not like it.

"They said they were recognizing and accepting the rest - like paying bus drivers for at least five hours a day even if their routes do not take five hours to complete, and agreeing to pay stand-by bench drivers, and all the other aspects of the contract that we had negotiated so hard," Tillery said. "But the group insurance policy that is to cover us through the summer, they have said they will not honor it now. And they are not even offering us anything else to replace it until Sept. 1.

"And insurance, by law, is supposed to be a negotiated item. They have not told any of us, not even the union, what their insurance is that they are offering. We might wait the three or four months, and find out they want to offer a supplemental insurance, like Laidlaw had before we negotiated full coverage for our drivers."

The union filed an Unfair Labor Practices grievance with the National Labor Board on July 1. Tillery and other officers of the union have contacted school board members and administrators asking for help in getting coverage for the summer.