Mayor de Blasio announced yesterday that the city has a contingency plan for the public school bus driver and attendant strike that is planned for this Tuesday.
Last Wednesday, drivers and attendants who work for Brooklyn-based Jofaz Transportation and Y&M Transit, and are represented by Teamsters Local 553, voted 85 percent in favor of authorizing a strike beginning Tuesday. According to drivers represented by the union, management has proposed cutting five paid holidays and putting what they called an unfair percentage of their hourly wages towards their healthcare costs.
The Daily News reports that yesterday Mayor de Blasio announced that the city would be offering students along the affected routes in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island MetroCards, and reimbursing parents for the cost of car travel or car fare. He also said that the city has also taken accommodations for disabled students into account.
"If there are situations where taxis or other options don't work, we we will make every accommodation we can for those kids," de Blasio said on Saturday. However, he also said he hopes negotiations will be reached by Monday, which would prevent the strike altogether.
"There is a very high likelihood this could be resolved by Monday," de Blasio said. Negotiations are expected to resume tomorrow. The strike would affect approximately 12,000 public school students and 2,500 private school students.
