NYC school bus firms plan to fire workers, end service to 150K students in contract dispute

A coalition of school bus companies plans to stop service to 150,000 city students and fire 12,000 unionized workers in a vicious contract standoff, The Post has learned.

The coalition will inform the state Monday of its plan set to take hold Nov. 1 as part of a state requirement that dictates companies must notify the state Department of Labor ahead of layoffs under the Working Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) laws.

Bus companies Logan, Transportation Corp., Consolidated and Pioneer Transportation saw their contracts with the Big Apple end in June and have been given month-to-month emergency contracts ever since.

“Without a contract the company cannot commit to the purchasing of buses and long-term leases necessary to continue its services,” a draft letter to the Labor Department said. “Therefore, without a contract extension, the Company’s contractual services are scheduled to end as of October 31, 2025.”

The letter blames the Panel for Educational Policy for terminating employees at the end of the business day on Oct. 31 — citing PEP’s “stated prerogative” to shut down service for the affected students by not approving a new five-year deal.

“Indefinite emergency extensions are unfeasible and impractical for transportation companies,” said John Crowley, attorney for the companies.

“A 5-year cycle is required to maintain labor stability and underwrite the costs of both new buses and real estate needed to safely operate these businesses,” Crowley, with Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, said in an affidavit accompanying the WARN notice.

Crowley said the businesses believed they had a deal with Mayor Eric Adams and the city Department of Education on the terms of a new five-year contract.

The cancellation of bus service would come three days before the Nov. 4 election, which could roil the races for mayor and City Council.

But members of PEP won’t ratify the new five-year deal, claiming it lacks adequate employee protections, and prefers to extend the existing contract on a monthly basis, according to the draft notice being sent to the state and obtained by The Post.

PEP’s 24-member board includes a simple majority appointed by the mayor, but there are vacancies that could impact the vote. It will next meet on Oct. 29.

The bus companies earlier this month held off on sending out WARN notices at the request of the mayor’s office, in hopes that the contract dispute would be resolved in a matter of days.

Under the proposed five-year contract, the bus companies agreed to ramp up GPS reporting to improve service on the bus routes, buy 200 electric vehicles and spend $345 million on goods and services with minority-and-women-owned business, reps for the bus companies said.

PEP chairman Gregory Faulkner blasted the bus companies for threatening to hold students “hostage” by cancelling their bus routes over a contract dispute that involves complaints about shoddy service.

“I cannot understand how these companies believe that threatening to strand our students—most of whom have disabilities—without transportation will compel me or any other Panel member to entrust them with our students for another five years,” Faulkner said in a statement Sunday night.

He called the threat of pulling bus service a “knee jerk reaction by privileged vendors with outdated contracts,” and said that the proposed 5-year bus contract will be taken up in November instead of this month — after the mayoral election.

Faulkner told The Post in a subsequent interview that the mayor-elect should have a say on the massive bus contracts he will inherit. It’s unclear at this time whether the PEP members will approve it, he said.

The extraordinary action of pulling vital bus service “shows a disregard” for drivers who are “consistently put at risk” with the lack of job protection provisions and for student services, “which are now being held hostage for this five-year deal,” Faulkner said.

Complaints about the school bus services have been a “point of friction” with parents and students for years, Faulkner said, adding that “we have sat through countless hours of public comment in school auditoriums about the lack of quality service from these bus companies, which receive billions in taxpayer dollars annually under 46-year-old contracts.”

He said PEP created a school bus advisory committee that will soon submit recommendations to the companies on improving service.

“Our guiding light is providing school bus service with integrity, safety, punctuality, and better communication, centered entirely on students and families,” he said.

The mayor’s office and DOE declined to comment.

The last major school bus strike unfolded in 2013 in the fallout over a dispute over job protections for workers if new bus companies were hired during the city’s competitive bidding.