Press Releases
Trinity Transportation Workers Vote to Join Teamsters Local 243
(DETROIT) – With over 90 percent of school bus drivers, monitors and mechanics voting in favor of union representation, Trinity Transportation workers in Detroit have voted to affiliate with Teamsters Local 243.
“Congratulations to all of the Trinity Transportation workers who made the right decision and voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining the Teamsters,” said Jim “Cinci” Cianciolo, President of Local 243. “We look forward to contract negotiations, where these workers will gain the wages and respect they deserve – guaranteed in writing.”
Trinity Transportation is a subsidiary of National Express (NEX), one of the largest student transportation providers in the world. The Trinity Transportation drivers, monitors and mechanics are part of a growing trend of Michigan school bus workers who are affiliating with the Teamsters – last year over 200 workers at another NEX subsidiary, Durham School Services, also voted to affiliate with Local 243.
Anthony Clingman works at Trinity Transportation and he’s been a professional driver for over forty years. Clingman had been a Teamster member in a previous job, an experience that he said motivated him to serve on the organizing committee during the lead up to the election.
“I learned a lot from being a Teamster – how to take care of myself, to not just accept things as they are,” Clingman said. “One thing that I’m looking forward to is having more job security once I’m no longer an employee at-will. Once we have that, everything else will fall into place.”
Teamsters Local 243 represents workers in a wide variety of industries throughout Michigan.