A school bus driver strike is set to continue for a second straight day on Tuesday in Marlboro, Massachusetts.
An update to parents from Marlboro Public Schools Superintendent Mary Murphy said that the district would be working to improve traffic around all schools on Tuesday, after heavy back ups on the first day of the strike with all the parents dropping their children off individually.
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Murphy referred parents to the district's website for specific plans amid the strike.
The strike began on Monday in Marlboro, amid issues hammering out a deal between the bus driver's union, Teamsters Local 170, and the bus company, NRT.
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Initially, there were three communities working on separate, but similar deals: Marlboro, Framingham and Westboro. A deal was reached in Framingham on Sunday night with NRT, so routes there have been normal. Despite there being no deal yet in Westboro, bus drivers in that town have not been on strike.
Meanwhile, in Marlboro, there’s been no progress on getting any closer to a contract agreement for the school bus drivers.
The the two sides haven’t even met to discuss any new proposals.
The school bus drivers’ union says the sticking point between them and bus company NRT remains the pay discrepancy between the full size bus drivers and the mini-bus and van drivers, as well as bus monitors.
The full size bus drivers were offered an $8 raise to $34 an hour, but the rest of the drivers say they were offered no raise.
They argue the district won’t be able to retain drivers, especially with a driver shortage as it is, if they don’t bring all of them up within a couple of dollars of each other.
“I’m hoping to see this doesn’t last very long because it’s not fair to the kids and the family," mini-bus driver Carol Willoughby said. "It really hurts us to have to do this, we love the kids, we love the families, we love the schools, but we need to have a fair wage.”
The union said that there were no negotiation sessions scheduled as of Tuesday morning.
“The city of Marlboro looks to pay their bus drivers to get to school safely, the union wants to pay the bus drivers to disrupt their education," Marlboro Mayor Arthur Vigeant said. "So we’re just hoping they get back to the table, the union seems to be away from the table more than they’re at the table.”
The expectation is if a deal is reached in Marlboro, a similar deal will be reached in Westboro.
