Working for a livin', taking what they're givin'

I had a busy weekend.

I've already blogged about the craziness of Friday and Saturday; at least what had happened up until that point. Saturday night I drove the trip that was actually scheduled to me. Myself and another driver (L) were scheduled to take a specific team home (1 of 4). Before we had arrived at the stadium in Seattle, we got a call that the "guy in charge" (a coach for the high school in our district - NOT our boss) wanted us to take another team home and have the two drivers already there take home a team that wanted to leave right then.

When L and I arrived at the stadium, the other team had not yet come out to the buses so L and I dialogued with the two other drivers, both of whom were above us in seniority. Lynn and I abstained to their decision since they were above us. From what L and I both saw, they elected to drive our team back to the hotel, leaving us to stay for the other team. L and I ended up getting another hour of work since the team we had now been given stayed until the end of the game (they were watching, not playing).

Then on Sunday I got a call around 10:10am that a second bus had been added at the last minute and I was offered the job. Since I live across the street from work I was able to get to the hotel with a bus within 20 minutes. As I drove the trip, I knew that an issue would come of this because there are 34 people ahead of me in seniority who would have loved those two hours of overtime pay. I was more than grateful to get that work!

This morning I went in to work and talked with J in dispatch about the weekends events. I particularly told her about the errand I ran when the guy called me on Saturday. She agreed with me that I should get paid for that since I was doing work for the district. Now our contract has a policy that any work you do, no matter what the length is, will be paid no less than 2 hours.

After driving my route, I went back in and talked with her more about what was going to happen. The first thing I discovered is that those two drivers who elected to go back on Saturday with the team belonging to L and me were complaining that we got more hours. I told her exactly what happened in the conversation from the perspective of L and me. We both made it clear that we had lower seniority and left the decision up to them. They elected to leave. According to J in dispatch, this was not the story she had gotten.

I also talked to my boss about my little unscheduled Saturday errand. He doesn't want to pay me for it!! According to him, what I should have done was called someone and told them what was going on. Apparently, they don't want me to try and fix a situation like that (and potentially save the district some embarrassment) unless I have been authorized to do that. Can you believe that shit? He said he was going to talk to dispatch and the coach in charge of this whole mess (the one who screwed up!) to see if I should be paid. I have a sneaky suspicion what the coach's feelings on that will be. He won't want to get charged for my help!

Thankfully, my union rep has a much different take on this situation. "Tough shit!" her words. I was trying to help the district and I should get paid. Granted, I thought I had screwed up and that's why I ran to base, but once there, I continued to try and fix the problem by running down to my bus, turning it on and getting on the radio to make sure the drivers responsible for that trip had actually shown up. The lesson I am getting for the district now is that when they want my help I should tell them to shove off and not offer to help them. That's complete bullshit.

Another issue I am dealing with involves my Friday schedule. I have an out-of-district route and one of my schools is not going on Friday. However, one of them is and I have one student from that school. But rather than pay me as they should, the district would rather put her on another bus and pay that driver since he's above me in seniority. Again with the bullshit! I don't think it's right that I get shorted hours just because they don't want to pay me.

Though I am a worker who always shows up on time, do what I am supposed to do and have students and parents who think I am a really good driver (and, I would think, a value to the district), I'm getting the impression that the district really doesn't care about me at all.