Canfield schools, bus drivers' union differ on negotiations

By ROBERT CONNELLY

rconnelly@vindy.com

CANFIELD

A spokeswoman for the Canfield bus drivers’ union says ongoing negotiations with the school should be in public.

“We’re really trying to get the public active in this,” said Joamie Hanlon of the Canfield School Bus Drivers Association. The current contract ended before this school year, and the union has been working under terms of the previous contract.

“We’re really not going to talk about it as much as others want to communicate and talk in the public,” said Alex Geordan, Canfield schools superintendent. He also added the schools will not “negotiate in the public.”

The Canfield Board of Education accepted a fact-finder’s report on the negotiations at its Feb. 11 board meeting. Hanlon said this week “the major issue to be settled is health benefits for Canfield bus drivers. ... We are very concerned that under the current board [of education] proposal, drivers could lose all of their health benefits.”

Geordan, however, reiterated that the schools accepted the fact-finder’s report, a third party brought in by the union’s request.

Hanlon detailed the fact-finder’s report recommended the continuation of health insurance for bus drivers for the continuation of the term, or this school year. Part of the union’s argument about health coverage, including dental coverage, is that the union agreed to no longer have dental coverage for the Canfield schools to save money while trying to pass a levy. The fact-finder said that this was not in writing.

“We would have hoped that they would have honored what was said in past negotiations,” she said, noting that dental coverage has not been reinstated since Canfield voters approved a school levy in 2013.

Canfield schools provided The Vindicator with the pay scale used for the bus drivers. These rates are effective for the 2011-14 contract, which has since expired but drivers are still working under as negotiations continue. A starting bus driver, working 3.5 hours per day for 180 work days and seven holidays earns $11,919.38, or an hourly rate of $18.21. The first step after the initial starting salary is about $100 more annually and 16 cents more an hour.

The bus drivers’ union has 32 drivers, and if talks have not resumed by the Canfield Board of Education meeting set for March 18, Hanlon said there will be union officials at that meeting.

Both the schools and the union have said they will continue to negotiate and don’t want to get into a lockout situation.

“We very much would like to go back to the table with the board,” Hanlon said. “They have yet to agree to come back to the table with us. We do not want to put parents in a position where they have to drive their kids to school.”

“We are open to that and have always been open to that. We were just waiting” to continue talks “until we had the fact-finder’s report,” Geordan said.