George Benedict is a First Student school bus driver from New York and a member of Teamsters Local 445. He recently traveled to the United Kingdom to meet with FirstGroup management, politicians and labor leaders and attend FirstGroup’s Annual General Meeting. Benedict also traveled to the UK last year as a nonunion school bus driver. Here he talks about his experience overseas and the changes he noticed as a result of becoming a Teamster member.

As I sat in the passenger seat of the 747 heading east, I wondered how this could be happening yet again. It was just last July that I had traveled with a large group of fellow Teamsters and attended the FirstGroup AGM (Annual General Meeting) in Aberdeen, Scotland to let the Directors of FirstGroup know how bad working conditions were here in the States. At the end of that trip I jokingly remarked, “When do we go again?” and it was now happening.

This trip was with a much smaller delegation of five Teamsters that departed July 4. Following an overnight flight, we arrived in London at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Over the weekend we had some informal meetings with representatives from the T&G section of Unite, a UK union with more than 2 million members, including FirstGroup employees.

During the first part of the week, Kim Keller, the Deputy Director of Organizing for the Teamsters; Fred Potter, an International Vice President for the Teamsters; and Tammy Edwards, a Teamsters Strategic Research and Campaigns Coordinator met with Martin Gilbert, Chairman of FirstGroup. This appears to be the beginning of a welcomed dialog at high levels of both organizations to discuss and resolve issues of concern from both sides.

Also, on Tuesday, we met with three UK national politicians, Members of Parliament, who were very interested and listened to our message that while conditions have improved at First Student yards in the States that have a Teamster contract, we still have to keep a close watch and monitor that First Student does in fact honor contracts and remains neutral during the organizing process. The MPs offered to write letters to FirstGroup and to continue monitoring their actions. Later that day we also met with Jack Dromey, the Deputy General Secretary of the Unite union.

On Wednesday we flew to Aberdeen, Scotland and met with more union supporters. In the United Kingdom things are much better than they are here in the States with First Student. They have benefits (medical, vacation, etc.), computer training facilities, plus modern driver and maintenance facilities.

Thursday was the AGM where Fred and Kim addressed the Board with the message of continued and expanded dialog. I delivered the message that things were much better this year than they were last year since we had a Teamster contract. We had gotten our holidays, jury duty, bereavement, scheduled increases and other things back, but that there was still room for improvement.

Also mentioned was the fact that the contract also benefits First Student. First Student can now plan what financial resources will be needed for the next few years. The contract also creates a working environment where employees will no longer fear being terminated without cause, but instead can focus their attention of performing a quality job.

When employees are comfortable at their job, they won’t “job hop” to gain a little since they will know what they are getting for the next few years. This keeps turnover rates down thereby saving the company training costs in addition to keeping experienced workers in house.

The atmosphere this year was very different from last year. Last year it was somewhat confrontational with FirstGroup not believing how bad things were here in the States. This year the atmosphere was more of a business “let’s talk”. It appears that FirstGroup has finally realized that what we presented last year was, in fact, true and they are now working toward resolving the issues. It is still way to soon to let our guard down and believe that FirstGroup will continue to improve, but it seems to be headed that way.

We met and spoke with many people in the FirstGroup / First Student management team, including Professor William Gould, who is in charge of monitoring that the neutrality of First Student is complied with during the election process (it’s called the IMS System, or Independent Monitoring System) Everyone seemed open to discussion with the hopes of future dialog.

Everyone in our group was happy and felt that we had accomplished a lot in conveying our message to FirstGroup and the Members of Parliament. The support of the other unions and the MPs was unbelievable. There is no question that they are very much on board with the Teamsters and will support us 100 percent.

When we met with the members of the other unions, it is more than just their words of support, you can feel the support that they offer knowing that they are doing the same job that we do and are with us all the way.

I suspect that some changes will start to be handed down from FirstGroup to First Student on how better to run the business and to treat the employees properly.

It was again my pleasure to travel and work with such a great and dedicated group of people. Tammy and Steve Edwards made all the right connections and appointments with the right people; it ran like clockwork. Kim Keller and Fred Potter were fantastic in presenting our concerns and suggesting the next steps to be taken to further our cause of improving the working environment.

The flight back was different with leaving at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and arriving 4:30 p.m. the same day.

Do I dare say, “When do I go back?”

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My first reaction of being asked to go to the UK was, sure, but why would anybody be interested in the troubles in my yard? And besides, I hear that First Student is part of a giant company called FirstGroup, so how bad could they be? I would soon get the answers to my questions.

There were four of us drivers traveling from the US and meeting the rest of the folks in the UK. We were told that our chaperones (Tammy and Steve Edwards) had never lost anybody. One of the group members that had gone previously noticed Tammy looking back to make sure that no one was lost so from then on, he just quacked once in a while to let Tammy know that he was still there.

We were told to get our passports and given the travel itinerary. The big day (evening arrived) and we departed Kennedy Airport about 7.00 pm on a Sunday evening. We were told to sleep on the plane but who can sleep being part of this. We arrived in England about 7.00am on Monday morning, proceeded through customs and baggage claims and then went to the meeting area were we met Andy Gilchrist, the UK campaign cordinator. What a great person, it was like we had known each other for years!

We also met Jeff Farmer who also made us feel very much part of the team. It was starting to feel like this giant plan may work, although I had no idea how big the plan was.

By now it was about 10.00 am and we had meeting schedules to keep. Due to the size of the group we split into two groups for the taxi ride to the hotel and meetings. Meetings had been schedule for “now”, so we had just enough time to check in at the hotel and throw our luggage into the room.

The group that I was with met with a UK national politician, Gwyneth Dunwoody. Of course you just don’t walk in and meet these people; first there is security where folks that don’t smile carry automatic weapons. I got the impression that this is not the place to joke around.

The meeting with Gwyneth was very friendly. She welcomed me to her country and thanked me for attending the meeting, given that I had just arrived and really hadn’t slept in quite a while. It was at this point that I realized that what I assumed were just some troubles in my yard, were in fact, part of a much larger picture that I hadn’t known about previously.

Gwyneth was very aware to the fact that FirstGroup employees in the UK were treated much better than First Student employees in the US. Even though the company claims to treat all employees equally, that is not the truth. The UK politicians are concerned that, in fact, this strategy of treating the US employees much worse than the UK employees is by design and not by chance. Their concern was that if FirstGroup could get away with this conduct in the US, they may try it in the UK which would have a negative affect on the quality of service that was provided to the public in the UK.

By now it was quite clear that the organizing campaigns in each and every yard in the US was critical and had international implications for many employees as well as the quality of service that was provided to the international public.

In between the meetings there were TV crews and reporters to talk to and let them know how the employees were treated in the US and by now the group had grown to about fifteen persons all of whom were working towards one goal, it was a GREAT feeling.

We then traveled to Scotland to attend the Annual Shareholders Meeting of FirstGroup. Somehow our friends at the T&G had arranged for us to have proxy status so that we were able to speak at the meeting.

On the night before the meeting we met with local union members and re-enacted the events of a real ‘captive audience meeting’ held by First Student in order to demonstrate how bad things were in the US. The “show” brought back some real emotions from all of us in the group when we relived what had happened to us and our coworkers.

During the performance one union member was out of the room when the announcement was made that it was just a reconstruction and as it went along he thought that the events were real and he got really angry and jumped up and was ready to defend one of his fellow coworkers from the US! This action reinforced the strong bond between the two different union groups that were thousands of miles apart, for this was truly an international campaign.

During the check-in at the meeting, there appeared to be some unusual happenings, with our names having to get double checked. It looked to me as just another way for FirstGroup to say “we don’t want you here”. While outside and just before the meeting again there were TV crews and numerous reporters to speak with.

Finally we were in the meeting room with the Board of FirstGroup and shareholders. From the very beginning they did everything that they could in order not to hear our messages. The Chairwoman of the union in the Netherlands told the meeting that FirstGroup would not be allowed to purchase the bus company in the Netherlands. (She and Steve Edwards were part of a committee that visited many bus sites in the US and spoke to workers to get the real truth). Strike one for FirstGroup.

Most of our group then addressed the Board of FirstGroup to let them know what was really happening in the US. They were quite open to show that they did not want to hear us and be told the truth. The looks at the ceiling, the looks at the watches were just what we had seen on TV on how to look ‘un-interested’. To me it would have been much better if they just said “thanks for taking the time to let us know, we will look into it”. I know it would have been a lie but on the surface it would have at least appeared that they were interested.

Then there were the pie charts, graphs etc of just what a Board wants to hear, but not necessarily the truth. I wonder how many Board members dis-located their shoulder with all the “pat me on the back for doing a great job, how much money did I make” attitude that was going around.

All of this type of treatment by FG just reinforced our groups’ determination to get the real truth out and to let the employees in the US know what kind of company First Student really is. The plan by FirstGroup had back fired.

There were so many different groups involved from the Teamsters that made this trip a great success. Numerous times during the trip, the four drivers had a hard time understanding how huge this campaign is, let alone coordinating all the right resources.

We had a few hours on the Saturday morning to do some sightseeing on one of those double decker buses and to see Buckingham Palace, it was great. You just have to watch out for low tree branches if you are sitting on the on the top of the bus!

On numerous occasions I had to ask Steve “did I get the right change?” He would then count the change in my hand, just like first grade.

Steve and Tammy Edwards did a great job in coordinating this giant international trip while paying attention to the smallest details. None of the four drivers got lost and we all felt from minute number one right at home with Steve and Tammy. We all felt like we had known them for years. It is my pleasure to know and be working with such great people.

When do we go next?