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By JOEL BARRETT
SOUTH KINGSTOWN - Union rank and file school bus drivers Monday voted to listen with an open mind to any settlement offered in the dispute over a contract between the union and the contractor who buses students to South Kingstown schools.
A member of the Teamsters Local 251 said drivers met briefly Monday and decided to go along with talks should an offer be made by DATTCO. Teamster shop steward Tracie Warren couldn’t be reached Monday, but told the media earlier that a strike would come today if talks failed. But Cliff Gibson, chief operating officer for DATTCO, Tuesday morning said the next bargaining session was slated for today. “Both parties are still at the bargaining table.” “The union leadership has assured me that there will be no interruption of service or job action as long as both sides are at the bargaining table,” Gibson said. Gibson said much of the lanaguage of the drivers’ contract has been hammered out with compensation and the duration of the contract apparently the main sticking points. DATTCO, which serves two Rhode Island school systems and 16 in Connecticut, transports roughly 3,400 South Kingstown students each day. In the two states, DATTCO transports 25,000 students. In South Kingstown, DATTCO’s three-year contract with 36 drivers and 25 monitors-aides expired Dec. 31. The most recent offer, Gibson, said was for a four-year pact. Drivers rejected DATTCO’s contract proposal, 29 to 17, last week. Union officials sought an unpaid personal day and a paid snow day, and the opportunity to contribute to retirement plans, she said. The South Kingstown School Committee accepted new bids for busing last month. DATTCO, transportation contractor since 2002, and First Student Inc. submitted bids for three-year deals that could be extended two more years, at the district’s discretion, under the new specifications. DATTCO’s bid was $3 million for 2008-09, $3.3 million in the following year and $3.7 million in the final year of the proposal. First Student, which held the contract for about 10 years previously, bid $3.3 million in the first year, $3.5 million the next and $3.6 million in final year of the contract. The school committee, however, has only budgeted $2.7 million for fiscal year 2008-2009, about $300,000 below DATTCO’s bid and $600,000 less than First Student’s.
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