“After working through the lockdowns, delivering technology and lunches and doing basic maintenance in the summer heat, I’m still getting paid just $15 an hour. “I felt utterly hopeless,” added Campbell. He noted that the low wages are part of the state’s failure to fully fund public education in budget negotiations. He started at $13.25 an hour, which was raised to $15 an hour, but Campbell lived 30 minutes away from work and spent time between morning and afternoon shifts sitting in his car, with no working heater. “What’s behind the sick-outs is our frustration with various administrations for their sluggishness in getting fair wages to the working class,” said Zac Campbell, a school bus driver in the district since 2019.
#BUS DRIVER WAGE DRIVERS#
In Wake county, North Carolina, school bus drivers have been calling out sick en masse over the past few weeks, demanding higher wages amid driver shortages throughout the district. What’s behind the sick-outs is our frustration with various administrations for their sluggishness in getting fair wages to the working class Zac Campbell Seventy-eight per cent of respondents said their driver shortages were worsening. Every region in the US has altered student transportation services as a result of Covid-19. Though a shortage of school bus drivers was an issue before the pandemic, the problem has worsened in the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year and several school districts around the US are having trouble finding enough drivers.Īccording to a survey published in August 2021 by the National Association for Pupil Transportation, 51% of school district respondents reported their driver shortages as “severe” or “desperate”.
When Covid-19 shutdowns hit the US in March 2020, school bus drivers either quit, were furloughed, laid off, retired or got sick as schools transitioned to online learning.Ī ‘Bus Drivers Wanted’ sign seen in Sandy, Utah, in August. All the counties around us are getting better pay at this point,” added Marshall. Drivers are also expected to pay for their own commercial driver’s license, background check and maintain a clean driving record. Her school district has offered bus drivers a $50-a-week stipend incentive, which Marshall argued does not make up for the low salaries drivers make, around $19,000 a year, in addition to the stipulations of attendance or having to work extra routes in order to receive the stipend. “A lot of us have been doing double runs and they’re making it permanent,” said Marshall. Marshall explained that school bus drivers are driving buses packed with up to 70 students at once, often having to work multiple routes during a shift as routes were cancelled and consolidated due to the shortages. They are also advocating for drivers to be provided with any paid sick time they used to quarantine due to exposure or testing positive for Covid-19. Nichole Marshall, a school bus driver in Bullitt county, Kentucky, is one of several drivers to have participated in protests and sick-outs over the past few weeks for pay raises amid driver shortages in the county.
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