News | Press Releases
Mission School Transportation Workers Ratify Contract with Teamsters Local 572
Press Contact: Matt McQuaid Phone: (202) 624-6877 Email: mmcquaid@teamster.org
Latest Collective Bargaining Agreement Comes After Two Day Strike
(LONG BEACH, Calif.) – Over 100 drivers and mechanics who provide special needs student transportation for the Long Beach and Torrance Unified School Districts (LBUSD and TUSD) have voted by five-to-one margin to ratify their latest contract with Mission School Transportation. The agreement comes after the workers went on a two-day strike.
“Thanksgiving is upon us, so we’re glad that the company was finally able to express some gratitude for these essential workers by coming back to the table and giving them what they deserve,” said Rick Middleton, Local 572 Secretary-Treasurer and Teamsters Passenger Transportation Division Director. “I’d like to extend gratitude to these workers for sticking together during the strike, not a single member crossed the picket line. I’d also like to thank to the parents who advocated to the school board on our behalf and for the entire community for coming out and supporting us.”
The three-year collective bargaining agreement includes a number of significant benefits, including health care plan with 90 percent of costs covered by the employer and wage increases of over $4.00 per hour. Lois Webb is a fourth-generation Teamster who has worked as a driver for LBUSD for over thirty years. She is also a shop steward who served as a leader during negotiations and the strike.
“Other essential workers who are in contract fights, I say go for it,” said Webb. “I know it’s scary, but if you made it through the pandemic you can make it through a strike. The key is that everyone sticks together. We had a saying on the picket line – ‘one band, one sound, one group, one union.’ And we get it done.”
Over 9,000 Local 572 Members work in the bakery, transportation, graphic communications, grocery, retail, soft drink, and public sectors – including for some of our nation’s best-known firms like Pepsi, UPS and Costco and 150 others. For more information, go to https://www.teamsters572.org/.
-30-