Are First Student school bus Teamsters on the verge of striking across the Northeast?

First Student workers are demanding a Teamster pension in contract negotiations in New England. The money is there. The union’s pension proposals would not increase the company’s costs or expose it to additional liability.  

But the company is refusing to give members a union pension as a matter of “principle.” 

The New England Teamster Pension Fund is strong and just got $5.7 billion in funding as part of the Butch-Lewis Act, which passed under American Rescue Plan after years of rank-and-file Teamster activism.

First Student Teamsters in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania are at the bargaining table and ready to strike. Members in multiple locals have voted to authorize a strike, with more strike authorization votes on the calendar.

First Student Teamsters are covered by a National Master Agreement that allows them to honor a picket line and withhold their labor even if they are working under a contract with a No Strike provision.

The Teamsters are increasingly using extended picket lines to increase members’ bargaining leverage. In the case of First Student, this would mean region-wide shutdowns.