SHARONVILLE, Ohio — Close to 100 Princeton City school bus drivers went on strike here Oct. 1. The workers, who transport over 5,000 students daily, are demanding higher wages after years of unlivable pay and no medical or prescription drug coverage. Striking drivers lined the road in front of First Student, Inc., the bus company that serves several schools in the northern suburbs of Cincinnati.
“First Student is a for-profit company, they don’t worry about working families,” Tarelle Harris told the Militant, Harris is president of Ohio Association of Public School Employees Local 184.
“We don’t have health insurance and we need better wages. We make $22.50 right now and we’re asking for a $3 an hour increase up front and $2 more next year and the year after.
“We’re not like truck drivers, their freight doesn’t talk, doesn’t move. We’re taking care of children, we have to check on them,” Harris said.
Tina Benjamin, a driver for 31 years, said last week that she had a child who had a serious asthma attack. “I made sure the child got an ambulance to the hospital right away. That’s the kind of drivers we’ve got here, but we’re not getting the money we need to live and we’re not getting the respect we deserve.”
“We treat these kids like they’re our own kids. We watch them grow up. In fact Tarelle, our union president, used to be on my bus,” Benjamin said. Harris said he graduated from Princeton High in 2014 and went right to work as a bus driver.
The picket lines are up every school day at 11786 Hwy Drive in Sharonville. “We’re asking everyone to join us and support our fight,” Harris said.