The men and women responsible for keeping the wheels of the Dowagiac Union Schools bus fleet spinning are feeling some friction with leadership in regards to their pay, according to one driver with the local school district.

Phyllis Bannow, a Dowagiac woman who has driven buses for the district for the past six years, expressed her grievances with the compensation she and other drivers receive from the administration to the Dowagiac Union Schools Board of Education during its meeting
Monday evening. The woman spoke to the board on behalf of several other drivers in the district, requesting a pay raise to offset the bite of reduced hours and increased payments for health insurance and other benefits.

“I want the people of Dowagiac to know what is going on,” Bannow said Tuesday, following her remarks the previous evening. “Even if I was not working here I would be livid with how they treat our district’s bus drivers.”

According to the district’s contract with the Dowagiac Union Educational Support Professional Association union, bus drivers employed with the district make $12.78 per hour during active driving time, and $9.09 during layover periods, which occur when drivers wait for sports teams to finish before driving them back to town.

Bannow complained about this pay rate, saying that drivers continue to be underpaid for their work. According to a document provided by Bannow to the Daily News, bus drivers were paid $11.12 for active driving hours in 2001 — only $1.66 less than their current rate.

Compounding the issue is the fact that drivers are receiving fewer opportunities to ferry students on field trips and sporting events this year, Bannow said.

Bannow said she took home $236 over a two-week period on a recent paycheck due to the reduction of hours and an increase in insurance payments this year.

Bannow also told the school board that Dowagiac drivers are paid less than other districts in the area. According to labor contracts posted on the Cassopolis and Edwardsburg school district websites, hourly bus wages for bus drivers begin at $15.56 and $14.53, respectively.

The woman’s remarks to the board are a last ditch effort to get the district to do something about the problem, she said. As Michigan law prohibits drivers from striking, she may have to find another job if local bus drivers do not receive additional compensation soon, she said.

“We like our jobs, and we all get along fine with one another,” Bannow said. “But if we cannot feed our kids, what can we do?”

While she said she speaks on behalf of the other drivers in the district, Bannow’s statements Monday were not made on behalf of the union that represents them.

Roy Freeman, president of the union that represents the district’s bus drivers as well as custodians, maintenance, mechanics and utility employees, also spoke during Monday’s school board meeting. Freeman said Bannow’s request was not made with the union’s approval, nor should be considered the proper venue for making such negotiations.

Dowagiac bus drivers have received pay raises over the last several years, since the last time the union negotiated wages with the district in 2015, Freeman said. This year, the drivers, along with other employees represented by the union, received a 1 percent wage increase, which will be followed by a 1.5 percent increase next June, bringing their pay up to $13.01 an hour.

Due to the fact that the current three-year contract the union has with the district is still active, union representatives cannot renegotiate wages until the deal is up or unless they receive special approval from the Michigan Education Association, the union that governs the Dowagiac Union Educational Support Professional Association, Freeman said.

However, the administration worked out a deal with union representatives in the spring to provide $1,250 worth of stipend pay this year to drivers to encourage them to stay on with the district, due to the shortage of operators across Michigan, said Superintendent Paul Hartsig.

“We worked hard to find a way to provide them with extra pay, without violating the terms of the current contract,” Hartsig said.

This shortage is also contributing to the recent shortage of additional driving opportunities, as the current roster of drivers cannot cover sporting events or field trips as well as continue to serve afternoon routes, Freeman said.

“As soon as we get a full complement of drivers again, the usual schedule for trips will go back to where it normally belongs,” Freeman said.

According to the superintendent, several new drivers have began taking routes this week, with more expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Hartsig said that administrators are aware of the pay gap between Dowagiac and other local districts, though the district also helps pay for additional insurance plans that other districts do not, as well as provides pay bonuses for veteran drivers and drivers with stellar attendance, he said.

Until the current contract expires in 2018, the union and administration could possibly work out a deal for additional pay through additional stipends in order to quell any possible issues, Freeman said.

“I understand the district has tried to remain frugal and viable in times in which other districts have faced massive deficits, but at the same time we all have to work together to make that happen and still maintain a comfortable pace of living and not have to be worried about where our next meal is coming from,” Freeman said.

Hartsig also said that the administration is open to further negotiations.

“The people we have on staff right now are professional and highly trained individuals,” Hartsig said. “We appreciate our bus drivers. We do not see this as an adversarial situation. We just want to come to an agreement on what is fair.”