Rob Postmentier

Pace University Bus Driver New York, N.Y.

Compared to most other bus drivers who work for Pace University, Ron Postmentier considers himself lucky. At least, he can afford to live in the same city where he works. That's only because his wife works, they live in a home they bought more than 30 years ago when homes were far cheaper, and their three kids are grown and no longer need financial support. Most other Pace bus drivers, who are trying to pay the rent and support their families, aren't nearly so fortunate. "They live very close to the chest," Postmentier says. "There aren't any who live in New York City except for the outer extremes of the Bronx. There's no way you can live in the City on what we're paid."

Because they wanted both decent wages and basic respect and dignity on the job, the Pace drivers sought to organize into the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), which is part of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In an NLRB election in October, 2005, they voted overwhelmingly to be represented by NYSUT/AFT. Postmentier says, "I was all for organizing. I used to work in the publishing industry and I'd seen these people who benefit by being members of an organization called a union."

But management, instead of accepting the bus drivers' decision, gamed the system to block them from winning their rights. What followed was a textbook example of how powerless the NLRB really is to protect workers' freedom to organize against an unscrupulous management.

After Pace hired a union-busting firm from Texas, it tried to derail the workers' decision by filing objections to the NLRB election and calling for it to be set aside. The NLRB said it would hold a hearing to investigate — but the union knew that could take forever to resolve, so it agreed to set aside the election and hold another one. Once again, a majority of the workers voted for the union. Then Pace turned around and objected to that election as well. Eventually, the NLRB certified the union, but even that didn't settle matters. Now, the Board has actually had to take Pace to court just to enforce the certification because the Board has no real enforcement powers of its own. Even worse, Pace "wants to make this union go away, and one option is to close down the Transportation Department totally," Postmentier says.

The bottom line is that Pace has delayed the workers' choice of a union for 1 1/2 years, and because the laws protecting workers' rights are so weak, there's no end in sight anytime soon. "The law isn't forceful enough," Postmentier says. "It has too many escape hatches for management."  So at this point, he and the other drivers do their job every day, which is "to serve the students," as Postmentier says. "We enjoy doing a good job for them. That comes from us. There's no incentive coming from the university."