By Dusica Malesevic and Amy Zimmer – DNAInfo
A strike of school bus drivers, which would have left thousands of children scrambling to get to school Tuesday morning, was averted late Monday night, officials said.
Drivers and attendants from Jofaz and Y&M Transit voted last week to authorize a strike with the workers’ contract ending with the Department of Education Monday.
But the union reached a tentative deal with the city late Monday night.
“We are pleased to report that Jofaz Transportation and Y&M Transit have reached a tentative agreement with their bus drivers’ union and all buses will operate tomorrow as usual,” Department of Education spokeswoman Devora Kaye said in a statement. “We are grateful to families and educators for their patience and support as we prepared contingency plans to provide transportation alternatives for students and families.”
The contingency plans had included providing MetroCards to some students, and reimbursing travel costs to parents who had to get their kids to school by other means.
The Teamsters Union, which represents the drivers, said the tentative deal includes a provision where the city will continue to provide medical insurance at no cost to the drivers.
The contract will now go to the union membership for approval.
Which will be paid for with additional cameras (aka cash registers) and less regular traffic lanes, in order to generate the revenue.