Please welcome our 41 new brothers and sisters who work as drivers and monitors with Illinois Central School Bus in Wilmington, Ill. They voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 179 in Joliet, the second group of Illinois Central drivers and monitors to join in the past two weeks.
Dala Watson, a driver, called it "fantastic" that they stepped up so they can have a voice as Teamsters. She said,
We're hoping to change the fact that we have no seniority and to get fair pay. We have an important job carrying children, and to have backing and security now means a lot to us.
Lorraine Sawyer has worked on school buses for 14 years. She's excited to see a change in her working conditions. She said,
We've needed this for a while. I think things are going to be fair for us now.
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| Proud new Teamsters |
Tom Flynn, president of Local 179, said he's proud to welcome another group of Illinois Central workers:
We're not going to stop until every Illinois Central and every school bus worker in our area has the representation and the respect they deserve.
There are four more Illinois Central elections in the next week. The Teamsters school bus campaign is on a roll, with more than 34,000 drivers, monitors, aides, attendants and mechanics becoming Teamsters since 2006.
