May 20, 2020
Victory finally closes chapter on First Student drivers’ February 2018 strike
In a long-awaited and well-deserved victory, a neutral arbitrator has ruled that Teamsters Local 174 members at First Student will finally get the healthcare they won through a nine-day strike more than two years ago. At the conclusion of that bitter strike, the group of over 400 Seattle school bus drivers were stunned to find this was not the end of the road. Instead, the strike victory spawned a fierce legal battle between First Student and Teamsters Local 174 that lasted until this arbitration decision finally closed the chapter on our members’ healthcare fight – at least until healthcare and retirement negotiations start again in 2021.
First Student drivers’ fight for quality, affordable healthcare has been long and difficult. It first peaked in February of 2018 when the group of drivers – who provide all yellow bus service for the Seattle School District – walked off the job in an Unfair Labor Practice strike protesting First Student’s unilateral implementation of an inferior healthcare plan without negotiating it with Teamsters Local 174. After more than a week on strike, a deal was reached between First Student and the Teamsters to give the group of hardworking drivers access to the same healthcare plan enjoyed by management. The terms of the deal were simple: starting at the next school year, each driver would be offered a choice between two medical plans with differing premiums and deductibles. If those particular plans were no longer available in September when the school year began, the contract language stated that any alternate plans had to be “the same or better.”
However, mere weeks after the hard-fought medical went into effect, First Student engaged in a “bait and switch” and once again unilaterally changed the plan. The new plans had much higher deductibles. Immediately, Teamsters Local 174 went to war over the issue: we first filed a grievance on behalf of our members, and then continued to escalate until the matter reached a neutral arbitrator tasked with making a final decision both sides would have to live with.
The arbitrator’s decision delivered everything we were seeking: the arbitrator ruled the new plans were not comparable the previous plans, and ordered First Student to pay for any additional deductible payments our members had made over and above what was spelled out in the February 2018 agreement. For some members, this number runs into the thousands of dollars accumulated over 2018, 2019, and 2020.
“This was a very long uphill slog, from our bitter contract negotiations to the strike and then finally the legal battle and arbitrator’s decision,” said Kerry Breakfield Kearns, a First Student driver and Teamster Shop Steward. “Our path to victory shows over and over again how much power there is in being part of a strong Union. There were lots of moments when we could have given up and said ‘this is too hard, I don’t care anymore, let’s just take what they’re giving us,’ but I am so glad we didn’t do that. Now we finally have the quality affordable healthcare we’ve been fighting for, and there’s nothing First Student can to do to take that away from us.”
“I am so proud of these members for their courage and resolve to see this fight through to the end,” said Teamsters Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks. “They won this fight with their grit on the picket line, and we were not going to let First Student sneak that victory away from them by quietly swapping for lower quality healthcare. This arbitration decision finally closes that chapter of our members’ lives, and we are glad it ends on such a high note.”
Founded in 1909, Teamsters Local 174 represents 8,600 working men and women in the Seattle area. “Like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TeamstersLocal174.