BIDDEFORD — A slew of Biddeford School Department bus drivers, signs in hand, picketed in front of Biddeford High School prior to the School Committee meeting Tuesday evening.

The drivers, represented by the Teamsters Union Local No. 340, have been without a contract for 18 months and haven’t seen a raise in two years. With chants of, “We want a contract,” the drivers held an informational picketing session before later attending the meeting, where they voiced their concerns before the committee.

Ray Cote, business agent for the union, said the drivers began to negotiate with the school department in the spring of 2014. After negotiations came to an impasse, they moved into mediation and later into fact-finding phases. By picketing on Tuesday, Cote said he hoped the school committee would take seriously the drivers’ concerns.

“We don’t understand why for the people, in some respect, who have the most responsibility — due to the fact they are responsible for all the children getting to school and back home safety —  the school board doesn’t think that’s enough of a job to get us decent wages, decent jobs and decent working conditions,” Cote said Tuesday.

Jeremy Ray, Biddeford school superintendent, said the union initially asked for a $1 raise for all drivers, which he later said in a release would cost 10 percent more in employee wages. The union later asked for a 3 percent increase in pay, drivers said.

The fact-finding committee later said in a majority panel that it would support a 1 percent retroactive pay and a 1.75 percent pay increase for the remaining two years of the contract, through 2018.

“Comparing with other school districts, the Majority Panel believes that its recommended wage increase is a fair compromise, and places Biddeford rates more in line with other districts,” the fact-finding document reads.

Ray said in a release the School Committee has proposed to increase the number of annual sick days and the number of annual sick days that can be retained from year to year. In addition, the committee has moved to increase the number of personal days and annual overall paid days.

Ray said the committee has proposed wages that would result in the department’s most experienced drivers earning $1 more per hour on average than similarly experienced drivers in surrounding districts.

The drivers, however, say they’re short-staffed, underpaid and have lost drivers to surrounding districts, which they say pay more than Biddeford. For the first 19 years of their 20-year pay scale, the union said, Biddeford drivers are paid on average 30 to 60 cents less per hour than their counterparts in the surrounding towns.

“We’re five full-time drivers short. We’re concerned about the safety of the students and the safety of the drivers,” said driver Pota Desjardins. “They’re consolidating a lot of the runs and it’s harder for us to drive safely, and it’s hard for the students being packed in that way onto the buses.”

Desjardins said the drivers were willing to accept the fact-finding report’s recommendations, but a problem the drivers have is that Ray wanted to mediate more in hopes of subcontracting work to teachers.

“We agreed just to put it all behind us. We agreed that we were just going to move on and accept the fact-finders,” Desjardins said. “Jeremy Ray wouldn’t accept it and wanted to mediate another time. So we sat down and he put more on the table.”

Ray said the subcontracting wouldn’t take work away from drivers. He said, in other districts, teachers have the capacity to drive individual students or small groups of students to functions such as award dinners or conferences where a whole bus would not be necessary, or where a bus would cost significantly more than transporting the student on the teacher’s own.

That transportation would be in the teacher’s own vehicle or in a department-owned van.

“Equally as important as fair pay for employees is fair opportunity for students. Not only is the Department committed to a deal that is fair for employees and taxpayers, it is also committed to an agreement that better serves our students and provides them with the same opportunities as those in surrounding communities,” Ray said in a release Tuesday. Ray said student opportunities are at the heart of the negotiations — which the drivers also agreed is important — and that no work would be taken away from the drivers.

“The school committee has proposed language that clearly allows it to provide flexible, affordable transportation so students may have these unique educational opportunities,” Ray said. “The school committee has not proposed to take away any current work from any transportation employees — they would continue to provide quality transportation to the students between home and school and on field trips.”

But the drivers say they’re only guaranteed a minimum of 25 hours of work each week, and that they need any potential extra work to supplement their incomes. The subcontracting of their work, they say, will cost them money in the long run

“I’m still at the same rate as when I started, at 14.36 an hour,” said Ronald Dery, who has been driving for two years. “I’m not alone in this. This is not right, and very unfair.

“I believe there is one issue that is stopping the process, and that is the subcontracting of our work,” Dery continued. “I ask you, the school board, to do your job, stop this delay and end this. It has gone on way too long.”

The negotiations will now move into an arbitration phase, Cote said.

“We do an important job. We ensure the safety of the children every single day,” he said. “It’s a job that a lot of people take for granted, and it’s done by some people who are dedicated and they deserve to be compensated.”

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or [email protected].