The school bus driver walkout that began Wednesday may be over as soon as early this week.
According to the New York Daily News, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is expected to rule on a formal complaint from the private bus companies that provide the yellow bus service.
Those bus companies are claiming that the strike is illegal and that they are being financially punished because of it.
If the NRLB rules on the side of the bus companies, then drivers could be back to work as early as Tuesday.
On January 16, drivers from Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union walked off the job, affecting 152,000 students, including 54,000 with disabilities.
In an effort to cut costs, the city wants to put contracts out to bid for 1,100 routes for the first time in 33 years. The union is objecting to the lack of job guarantees in the contract bid specifications and safety issues that could arise if current drivers are replaced with less experienced ones.
The city’s last school bus strike, in 1979, lasted 14 weeks.
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