Nothing like a little warning: Boston school-bus drivers walk off the job

I live in a scary neighborhood with poor people. And I still think that investing the money in schools and teachers will go a lot farther than holding a lottery so that the poor kids still end up in the bad schools when their parents can't afford private school.

The race issue via a vis neighborhood schools is pretty much dead, with a school system that's what? 90+ % minority? I haven't seen any evidence that busing kids from Eastie to Brighton or Roxbury to Allston has leveled the playing field in any way. The schools are still segregated in terms of achievement and opportunity (take a look at any elementary school that has Advanced Work classes or the exam schools). IMHO the money spent on busing would be much better spent focusing on equalizing quality and opportunity in neighborhood schools. Not to mention you might end up with schools that are much more connected to communities and families than they are now (just try getting to a school meeting or even a school play when you live near Dudley and work in the medical area and your kid goes to school in Charlestown...)

But you want a bunch of first graders on the MBTA?

I thought that was a little odd too. But maybe because a bus is made out of steel?

I understand where unions were important back in the day with no oversight by independent agencies - but today it just seems like unions hold employers hostage for unreasonable demands.

Kindof like Congress, actually...

To the union type, smaller ones often need help to have enough bargaining power and expertise. They align with larger, older ones.

Years ago, I worked a semester and summer at Cain's Mayonnaise when it was next to MIT. I had to join the union there, Bakers and Confectioners, which was part of the Teamsters. Likewise, for awhile the National Writers Union, to which I belonged, became part of the United Autoworkers. In the latter case, that also provided a path to affordable health care freelance writers couldn't get otherwise.

Unless you believe in the kindness of strangers business owners, despite massive evidence otherwise, unions are still essential to many.

Unions are like companies that are constantly merging and re-forming so the names have little relevance to what the workers do now. (They do this for cost savings and for additional clout.) It is likely that the bus-drivers union way back when merged with another union which then merged with the Steelworkers union giving bus drivers a somewhat absurd union name.

I know this as I used to be part of the United Autoworkers. My job couldn't be further from making cars....

I like the idea of union in theory but I've been in too many unions that were far more concerned with protecting lazy employees and this has taught me they often do more harm then good.

If pay is the issue then let's make that the issue. Or working conditions or whatever. But this is not a high-bar job. You have to be a good, safe driver, be reasonably personable, but no other real skills are required. I'm betting that this is a pretty decent gig, pay and benefits-wise.

Walsh outhacks him by miles!! How do you figure?

C and a half: Announce the date/time of your strike so preparations can be made to work around your strike.

For example, when the Boston Teachers' Union planned a strike in February 2007, they took the vote and made it known two weeks in advance. The schools could then plan to be closed that day so that they didn't have a problem of where to herd the kids or how to supervise all of the classrooms, etc. Instead, by striking without warning, the bus drivers left kids standing in the street while parents went to work expecting a normal day for their kids.

Strawberries!

School buses are a zoo - I'll definitely give you that. One of my kids told a friend who asked "aren't you scared being on a (MBTA) bus full of strange adults" that "they just sit around reading - nobody is throwing paper balls or screaming PENIS!"

There are different definitions of "order". Mostly, it is "is this keeping me from driving" and "are the kids harming others". Drivers still pull over and separate students or stop them from throwing things out the windows - for what that is worth. But those stops to break up problems take time.

So drivers are already expected to both drive through the city and keep the kids in line - even if that second part is a matter of opinion. But how in the hell is that ever going to take place - even to the extent that the driver is able to drive - if "on time performance" is now dumped on top of "absurd route schedules", "vagaries of traffic" and "increased safety measures"? This is their strongest talking point right here.

When they are maybe being micro-managed? Perhaps as if , why did you go down that street instead of the one you should have. Answer is oil truck making delivery , had to detour. Multiply that by how many times you might have to adapt and overcome the reality of the three dimensional real world , as opposed to the one dimensional flat screen of the computer world that some mutt may use to oversee the operations , in between computer chatting and surfing the web ,all the while believing that his or herself , the mutt , is one of the great geniuses of the universe , up there with Thomas Edison and such. That's just one scenario.

Swirls, I went to school in Boston , no school buses then, the Braves were though. Schools still there. But i will refrain from telling you it was uphill both ways. You usually knew who or what each house you walked by was all about , or if you rode the MTA , you might have had a neighborhood guy driving. The world has changed though. Why do so many people feel that they are entitled to make a good weeks pay , and that the rest should make the minimum wage, just a reflection Swirls not a dig at you now.

Actually, here's the correct cite:

Boston Public Schools students are eligible for transportation if they live more than:

1 mile from their elementary school;
1½ miles from their middle school (includes grades 6–8 attending K–8 schools);
2 miles from their high school.