State says DPS bus driver ‘sickout’ Friday, Monday constitutes unauthorized strike

DAYTON — After 82 bus drivers called off work Friday, leaving students stranded at bus stops with no contingency plan in place, Dayton Public Schools argued those drivers violated the bus drivers' contract with the district by staging an unauthorized strike, public records show.

The state employment relations board ruled in the favor of the school district this afternoon after over an hour of testimony this morning.

“We learned that the bus drivers acted in-concert with one another to stage a sickout, which is an unauthorized strike," Alex Ewing, attorney for DPS, argued before the state employment relations board Monday morning.

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Following the state’s decision, under Ohio law the district could impose discipline that could include withholding some wages and possible termination.

On Friday, Ewing said 82 of the district’s 141 bus drivers called off work and on Monday morning, 47 bus drivers called off.

The district and bus drivers' union have been negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement since the previous agreement ended on June 30. So far, the union and district have not reached a final agreement on a new deal, but agreed to negotiate, records show.

DPS Executive Director of Transportation Torronce Jackson said he became aware of the plans on Thursday when a bus driver came to him to inform him of the plans for a potential of a walk-off.

“The morning of the 12th I had a driver come in and give me a heads up on what the drivers were planning on doing and conversations she was a part of," Jackson said during testimony Monday morning.

On a typical day, the district deals with about 15 call-offs among its bus drivers, Jackson said.

The same driver, Jackson said, told him about a meeting Thursday among bus drivers to discuss the walk-off plan, but wasn’t able to tell him when the walk-off would happen.

Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said she became aware of the call-offs on Friday at 4 a.m. and sent a robocall to parents.

“We needed to have parents transport their students to school or log in virtually for the day," Lolli said.

Lolli said the district has 2300 total employees. Since July 8, 63 have tested positive for COVID-19, with 10 of those coming in the last week, she added. Of those positive cases last week, only one was within the transportation department.

A representative for the Regional Ohio Association of Public School Employees union, which the bus drivers union is apart of, said he was unaware of the plans for a walk-off on Friday.

The union’s lawyer said the people who called off were exhibiting symptoms of illness.

“These absences the past two work days, we don’t believe are not related to the collective bargaining process,” the lawyer for the union said. “We believe people are legitimately ill.”

He also added that the union and district are still working toward reaching a new collective bargaining agreement, despite voting down a tentative agreement last month.

Cox Media Group