An open letter to First Student workers in the Garden State:
Unite as Teamsters with your First Student Coworkers in New Jersey

Dear Fellow First Student Employees:

We are your coworkers at First Student in New Jersey. We are proud to inform you that we recently united at our yards and became Teamster members! We are reaching out to other New Jersey First Student workers to build enough strength to make important changes in our pay, benefits, respect on the job, safety for our kids and more.

You may already know that more than 5,700 private school bus workers nationwide have joined the Teamsters since 2006. But did you know that since this past May, more than 1,100 First Student drivers, monitors, mechanics and other school bus workers have joined the Teamsters—in NEW JERSEY ALONE! This is at First Student yards in Lafayette, Lawnside, Monmouth Junction, Piscataway, Trenton and Willingboro. Currently, workers at other yards are also in the process of forming a union with the Teamsters.

Nationwide, there are more than 15,000 FirstGroup employees who are Teamsters. We are rapidly gaining a strong voice for school bus drivers, monitors and mechanics. We have negotiated labor contracts with First Student that have improved our pay, provided for affordable health care, procedures to fairly settle problems at work, fair route distribution and more.

It’s time for all First Student workers to join the Teamsters and join us in a fight to raise our work standards. It’s time to join us and unite!

Sincerely,
School Bus Workers United – New Jersey
(An organization of school bus drivers, monitors and mechanics working to improve industry standards)

For more information, please Sean O'Neill at 202-437-5228