MIDDLETOWN – A strike by the 110 school bus drivers serving the Enlarged Middletown City School District was averted Thursday night after drivers voted to approve their first-ever contract.
The agreement with Mid-City Transportation, the company that is under contract with the school district, calls for a 75-cent per hour raise retroactive to September 1, 2015 and an additional 75-cents per hour in each of the following two years, according to Teamsters Local 445 representative Jerry Ebert.
“Basically, by September 2017 drivers will be making $2.25 more per hour than they are making right now,” he said. “We wish we didn’t have to resort to a strike. We wish there was another way we could get these kinds of fair raises, but ultimately I think reason prevailed on both sides and we got a decent contract that everybody can live with.”
Ebert said the bus company was “tough but ultimately fair” during negotiations. He said the contract for the 10 mechanics serving the school district was still unresolved and that negotiations would continue throughout the summer.
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