ITF Commends Labour Rights Report Release

1 March 2012
The ITF has commended the release by the Unite and Teamsters unions of a report examining labour relations at the North American operations of public transport company National Express.

The report, written by Professor John Logan of the College of Business at San Francisco State University, found that the company, which owns the second-largest US provider of school bus services, Durham School Services and Canadian school bus operator Stock Transportation, faces ‘a stark choice in its labor practices’. The company, the report states: ‘can either continue along its current seeming path ofaggressive anti-union behavior and failure to uphold international standards, or it can more appropriately follow the lead of other companies in the transit sector that respect labor rights and allow employees to make a free and uncoerced choice on issues related to unionization and collective bargaining.’

ITF inland transport section secretary Mac Urata commented: “The history of National Express’s involvement in Durham School Services has been dogged by controversy. There is an inescapable suspicion that workers’ labour rights there are falling far short of the standards expected of the parent company in the United Kingdom. Thisreport details the reasons for those suspicions and must act as an invitation to the company to get involved and clean up its act in the USA.”

He added: “It is concerns such as these that led to the ITF hosting strategy meetings on National Express with our affiliated unions in the UK, Spain and the USA, and we will continue to monitor the activities of this company closely.”

The report, National Express Group’s Diminution of Labor Rights in the US, can be seen at www.schoolbusworkersunited.org/sites/schoolbusworkersunited.org/files/121311NationalExpressLoganReportFinal.pdf

For more details see www.teamster.org/content/national-express-groups-flawed-worker-rights-policy-exposed

ENDS

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