VOTE NOW ON NEW CONTRACT
This contract puts 55 million new dollars into wages and benefits, not including millions more in wages for all the new Greyhound drivers who will be coming back into the fold along with the subcontracted work this contract brings back home. The addition of this work in the Southwest will add regular runs to many locations outside the Southwest as well, as work can now be returned to locations that lost work in order to keep as many regular jobs as possible in the locations hit hard by subcontracting.
The big breakthrough in this contract is the recognition for the first time ever that fairness requires that drivers be paid for all work time. It has been the single most aggravating aspect of our jobs for over 20 years, to be treated less fairly in this regard than other hourly workers in the United States. It should be illegal to require workers to perform their jobs without compensation. But because of a decades-long exclusion for over the road bus drivers from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, we have had to endure that fundamental unfairness. This contract finally gets rid of that unfairness.
Not only that, but at this moment in history when many unions are forced to take pay cuts and benefit cuts, this contract has across the board pay increases, including pay for work time we have never been paid for before. The top hourly rate goes up modestly, but when pay for all the other time we spend at work is figured in, driver wages in this contract go up substantially. Just take a look at a few examples of work assignments and see how the pay goes up over the life of the contract. A couple of examples are in the current issue of Solidarity Road, and additional examples are posted elsewhere on this website. Then apply the same increases to any run in the system to see how the new contract raises the total pay on that run.
If you have any questions about the new contract, please email or call me or your Vice President. If you have not yet received your ballot packet, call the Union Office now at (202) 244-0484 to receive instructions on how to vote.
Don’t let this opportunity for contract improvements we’ve been fighting for for decades slip away by failing to cast your ballot. Be sure to vote – vote YES – for this historic contract.
Voting ends on Friday, February 1st, at noon. Results will be available shortly thereafter.
