School Buses: The Latest Site of Worker Abuse

First Student, the second largest school bus operator in the U.S., is buying out Laidlaw, the biggest school bus operator. This means they’ll be transporting 4 million American school children and will control 40% of the school bus market in the U.S.

First Student is an affiliate of First Group, a U.K. based multinational company. First Student has a notorious history of abusive conduct towards workers when they try to form unions.

Last summer, in response to a bunch of stakeholders, from unions to political leaders, the company in the U.K issued a neutrality pledge to correct its anti-union behavior in the U.S., a commitment made by Martin Gilbert. Since then, they have violated that agreement all over the U.S.

So today, we have Sen. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) here in Naperville and they will call on the company to honor their commitment to allow workers to form unions.