Over the past two weeks, parents and children across the city have had to cope with a crippling school bus strike that no one wanted to happen – not the bus drivers, matrons, or mechanics, not the Department of Education, and especially not the parents of the 160,000 children who rely on yellow buses to get to school and back every day.

Add your name below to join Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and fellow parents across New York who are demanding immediate action to help resolve the school bus strike.  To read a full copy of our letter to the Mayor, click here.

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

With each passing day, the urgency to resolve this strike becomes all the more pressing and it is quite simply unacceptable for the City to not be engaged in the negotiation process.  As parents, we stand united in urging you resolve this strike, and offer a path forward:

1. Acknowledge the City’s responsibility in finding resolution to this strike. As the National Labor Relations Board made clear in a similar case, the City Department of Education is a party to these contract bids along with the bus companies, and the union. The City must come to the bargaining table and engage the issue in order to help us move forward

2. Retract the existing request for bids for special education busing and allow for a ‘cooling off’ period. The request for bids would affect over 1,000 routes citywide. If we pull back now, we can get people back to work and allow for an ongoing discussion on a longer timeframe.

Let us be clear: it is exceedingly important that we retain the safest, most experienced workforce as we find resolution to this strike. We seek a solution that values those who know what it takes to get our children to and from school safely, and who have built relationships with our kids and their families over years of service.

Sincerely,