First Student, the second largest school bus operator in the U.S., is buying out Laidlaw, the biggest school bus operator. This means they’ll be transporting 4 million American school children and will control 40% of the school bus market in the U.S.
First Student is an affiliate of First Group, a U.K. based multinational company. First Student has a notorious history of abusive conduct towards workers when they try to form unions.
Last summer, in response to a bunch of stakeholders, from unions to political leaders, the company in the U.K issued a neutrality pledge to correct its anti-union behavior in the U.S., a commitment made by Martin Gilbert. Since then, they have violated that agreement all over the U.S.
So today, we have Sen. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) here in Naperville and they will call on the company to honor their commitment to allow workers to form unions.