Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Members of the Las Cruces School Bus Union are ready to strike

LAS CRUCES – Las Cruces Transportation Federation Local Bus Drivers Union No. 6341 voted to approve a strike after no further progress was made in contract negotiations with Student Transportation Specialists New Mexico, the bus drivers’ employer.

More than 98 percent of drivers who gathered at Lynn Middle School on Tuesday evening voted to go on strike if a new contract is not made by the end of the week.

“It’s about the safety of children,” said LCTF President Dean Abrams. “The drivers, we are all trying to do everything we can. When the buses are overloaded there are too many children, this and the other, it all comes back to the drivers and the children are not safe.

“This is to push STS to provide the buses and drivers they need to safely move these children.”

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LCTF Local # 6341 is scheduled to meet with STS on Thursday to negotiate contracts. If STS doesn’t give in, strikes could ensue as the union’s current contract expires on Sunday.

Of the 120 bus routes in Las Cruces Public Schools, there are about 23 driver shortages that other drivers have to address by covering additional distances, Abrams said. With the COVID-19 safe practices of the capacity limits, the bottlenecks are becoming even more difficult to manage.

“(Standing out) is a very serious matter and we don’t like doing it,” said former LCTF President Marcos Torres. “But at the same time it has become a very dangerous job because of COVID, and there is always another virus just around the corner.”

In a new contract, LCTF Local # 6341 calls for updated safety language, updated sick day allocations, higher wages and benefits, and the elimination of staff shortages.

Van Wamel, general manager of STS New Mexico, said Friday that this kind of back and forth was standard.

However, members of the bus union and Torres said there never was a strike. The closest came in 2016, when STS confirmed negotiations just minutes before the strike began.

If a strike does break out, the vast majority of students who take the bus will not have reliable transportation to school until negotiations are concluded.

LCPS reported in August that over 7,000 students rely on school buses to get to school.

Miranda Cyr, a member of the Report for America Corps, can be reached at [email protected] or @mirandabcyr on Twitter. Show your support for the Report for America program at https://bit.ly/LCSNRFA.

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