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CIU 20 bus drivers, monitors, mechanics, custodians, and food workers will be taking another vote tomorrow on a revised contract to reach an amicable agreement with management.

CIU 20 provides educational services for special needs children.

Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 282 represented the workers when they organized in October of 2011. The employees have been working without a formal contract since organizing and had to request a Fact Finder from the PA Labor Board to give a non-binding recommendation when negotiations reached an impasse last year.

The Labor Board’s Fact Finder contract recommendations were approved by the TWU membership in November of last year, with the Labor Board finding in favor of almost all of TWU’s objectives. CIU 20 management rejected the Labor Board’s recommended, but non-binding, contract days later.

The failure of reaching a settlement did, however, jump start negotiations once again.

This newest contract proposal now before both parties is expected to be accepted by the workers, again leaving the final decision in the hands of the CIU 20 Board of Directors, which consists of representatives from each of the 13 school districts making up the CIU 20 consortium of schools within Northampton, Monroe, and Pike Counties.

The support workers are seeking seniority rules, paid time off that would include bereavement, equality in percentage raises, retention of health benefits, and many protections available to other unions now in place at CIU 20.

CIU 20 teachers and secretaries, members of a different union, have also been negotiating new contracts. Currently, they are working under their last contract, which expired more than 2 years ago.

UPDATE 8/15 @ 2:00 PM

Union membership approved the contract proposal.