From N.Y. Times by Cara Buckley:
The possibility of a strike by New York Citys school bus drivers inched closer on Sunday, with the schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, detailing contingency plans for the 152,000 public and private students who could be affected, as, steps away, hundreds of bus drivers, union leaders and parents noisily protested the loss of job security in new contracts.
The City Education Department said that a strike could begin this week and that it wanted to warn parents.
Theyre playing our children in an unfortunate way as far as making them not know what will be happening with school, Mr. Walcott said at a midday news conference at the departments headquarters, at the Tweed Courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
But at a rally outside City Hall, just south of the old courthouse, Michael Cordiello, the president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing 9,000 bus drivers, urged the city to negotiate, saying a strike would be the last card we want to play.
At issue was the departments announcement last month that it would be accepting competitive bids for 1,100 of its routes about a sixth of the total for children with disabilities. Though the other routes are not affected and some bus companies are nonunion, the department said any job action could spread.
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