slurp said:
But they're not arguing over money, they want to be able to do their own scheduling, just like all the other working stiffs!
But it is a matter of money. The reason the drivers want to do their own scheduling is because under the current system they can easily exploit a loophole in the system that allows them to profit from the "buddy" system.
Essentially drivers coordinate amongst themselves predetermined sick days with buddies. The driver orginaly scheduled on books of "sick" at the last minute but had previously advised a buddy to book on as standby for that same shift. The originally scheduled driver still recieves full pay for the day and the standby driver receives full pay and bonus/overtime for being called in at the last minute.
The same scenario repeats it's self later on with the drivers swapping the role of standby driver. The union currently does the scheduling, this buddy system wouldn't work to the advantage of the driver if the city were to manage the system.
The city has a responsibility to get a handle on the overtime situation and this is the best way how, the uninon and it's membership stand to loose a lot of money if they can no longer schedule themselves and thus we find the two sides a logger heads
It's games like this that have some drivers earning very comfortable salaries in some cases close to six digits.
Don't get me wrong these men and women have tough jobs and should be fairly compensated for their efforts, but when we are 44 days into a strike because the union doesn't want to loose control over a situation that we all pay for in tax dollars and ridiculously high bus fares, i say enough is enough.
I've been doing my part as a I roam the streets on horseback offering rides whenever I can.
