http://www.bostonschoolbusunion.org/
Tentative Agreement Reached in Contract Negotiations

Drivers and supporters rally and prepare to strike outside 11th hour negotiations at the Painters Union hall, August 20, 2008. photo: Maureen Skehan
All Out to
Ratification Meeting

Tuesday, Sept. 2nd
Boston Teachers Union Hall 6:00 PM

Read and Download First Student's Final Offer

Read and Download
Memorandum of Agreement regarding GPS

Alert! No Concessions! No Cutbacks!

Discussions for a new labor agreement between the Union and First Student are continuing. The Union is determined to fight for the hardworking women and men who for over 3 decades have provided safe, on-time, professional transportation to the students of Boston.
Today, June 30, 2008, the Union presented a proposal to the company which states in part:

"In the interest of concluding a fair and just Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and allowing ample time and opportunity for serious joint efforts to resolve all remaining areas of dispute, the Union proposes a limited extension. The intent is to allow time to reach an agreement well prior to the “start up” of the 2008-2009 school year and spare the tremendous hardship to the students and parents of Boston, as well as the significant costs to the parties, financial and otherwise, associated with a strike. This Extension Agreement would include an agreement for retroactivity to July 1, 2008 for the new CBA, including but not limited to wages, benefits, terms and conditions, as well as other issues of interest to the parties.

By Scott Malone - Reuters, March 6, 2007

BOSTON - A Massachusetts state agency has ruled that complaints by four Arab-American men they were harassed by managers at FedEx Corp. -- who called at least two of them 'terrorists' -- may proceed.

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination rejected FedEx's call to dismiss the complaints.

Kuwait-born Loay El-Dagany, 31, said on Monday he was subjected to abusive treatment by his manager from the time he started working as a FedEx trucker in Massachusetts in 2003.

'When I started working with FedEx, this guy, he tried to push me hard and called me names, using words like 'terrorist',' El-Dagany told Reuters. 'He mentioned (Al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden, that we may be cousins ... Sometimes, when he doesn't like something, he'd take one of the packages and throw it in my face and go and scream.'

Three other truck drivers who worked at the same Wilmington, Massachusetts location: Montaser Foad Harara, a Palestinian; Oukhayi Ibrahim, a Moroccan; and Yasir Sari, of Sudan, made similar claims in filings to the state agency in July. The four men are Muslim.

FedEx spokesman Perry Colosimo described the charges as 'unsubstantiated allegations.'