In August 1998, the Batavia School Board decided to lay off Mr. Reisinger, the district's 12 other bus drivers and a mechanic before signing a five-year busing contract with Laidlaw Transit. Though the deal made Laidlaw hire all the drivers back at higher salaries, the former school employees found their benefits weren't as good and their union couldn't speak for them. I feel like a slave. I was sold.
Many school districts opt to privatize bus services to cut costs and lawsuit risks.
In March, the Lebanon School District signed a similar five-year contract with Laidlaw, which in turn hired that district's 57 drivers. The Batavia case is the first labor dispute of its kind to reach the Ohio Supreme Court. The seven justices heard arguments Tuesday for and against the drivers' bid to get reinstated as school employees. James E. Melle, an attorney for the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, said the board could legally lay off the workers. But he said state law ensures that the workers' union representation, benefits and contract still applied when they resumed bus-driving duties for the district.