Durham Bus Driver Wins Arbitration

It has been a long 15 months, but Kathy Bowers, a member of Local 238 in Iowa City, Iowa is back on the road. The driver for Durham School Services, a school bus company, finally opened the doors to her bus earlier this week after being let go by the company more than a year ago.

On October 29, International Union organizers involved in the Champlin, Minnesota election witnessed the strength of a terminally ill First Student school bus driver. They saw a man with a strong will to find a way.

Elizabeth Rhodes, a Durham driver in Kansas City, dedicated this poem to her co-workers who recently voted to join the Teamsters. She wrote this poem after being forced to attend a mandatory anti-union meeting by her Durham managers. This poem is for all the school bus workers who are standing united and demanding that they be treated with the dignity and respect that all human beings - that all school bus workers - deserve.

Pamela Mason and her co-workers with Baumann Bus exhibited great courage and determination in becoming Teamsters.

I’ve done every kind of job you could imagine. I’ve worked at the phone company. I’ve taken score for softball games. I’ve cleaned office buildings. I’ve even run the concession stand at a Little League Park.

My name is Marcus Oladell and I’m a driver at First Student in East Hartford, Connecticut. I’ve worked for First Student as both a nonunion and union employee. Forming a union with my coworkers made a major difference in my life—in all of our lives.

In April 2007, Lori Polesel and Becky Finch celebrated a big victory. The drivers, along with their coworkers at the First Student yard in Wallkill, New York, had voted to join Teamsters Local 445.

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We recently joined with our political and Teamster leaders to deliver a message to Baumann that we deserve respect!