Howard County Public School bus drivers, aides, and monitors employed by Zum Transportation Services plan to vote on union representation next week, following widespread issues at the start of the school year and problems that have persisted since then.
On Wednesday, the workers joined with local politicians, members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1994 Municipal and County Government Employees Organization (MCGEO), local community groups, and other labor organizations to hold a rally and press conference ahead of next week’s representation vote.
Zum is a Silicon Valley-based contractor hired in February 2023 for a three-year, $27 million contract to cover the 230 Howard County Public School System’s (HCPSS) bus routes by the first day of school. After a disastrous start that led to multiple route cancellations, drivers not showing up for their routes, and eventually HCPSS’s COO resigning, the contractor reported having resolved the issues in October.
Still, Zum employees themselves aren’t satisfied, and have requested a vote on representation by the MCGEO.
When the workers announced they had filed with the National Labor Relations Board seeking a vote on union representation, Zum management said they were ambivalent about how their employees voted on membership. On Nov. 7, Baltimore Banner reported that Vivek Garg, co-founder and COO of Zum expressed no preference on whether employees unionized.
“Our goal is to be the choice employer in the region,” said Vivek Garg, co-founder and COO at Zūm. Garg pointed to Zūm’s competitive salary and benefits as steps his company has taken to make that goal a reality. ”So our job is to be the choice employer. What drivers do with, you know, union or nonunion, that is their prerogative.”
Raymun Lee, spokesperson for the MCGEO, told Baltimore Fishbowl that Zum leadership’s actions say otherwise.
Zum drivers are being invited to what turn into “captive audience meetings,” Lee said. Zum management is calling the meetings voluntary, but Lee said the company is paying employees to go.
“Then they’re misinforming them using traditional union busting, scare tactics to try to influence the vote,” Lee told Fishbowl. “They’ve even put billboards all around the depots telling them to vote ‘No,’ scaring them into believing that if they elect to unionize, they’re going to lose everything that they currently have as far as wages, benefits, and health care which is afforded to them by the employer. This is not the case.”
Immediately after that, Lee said Zum brought in an anti-union firm to convince individuals that they don’t need a union. Lee and the Zum employees with whom he’s spoken disagree.
“One of the things that we’ve heard is false promises, a bonus system they’d promise for recruitment and when Zum came in they were reneging on some of the bonuses and monies owed to workers,” Lee said. “They’ve complained about this tablet that they use to input their time…. The tablet has their routes, their schedules, they clock in from it. Now, if somehow when coming back to the depot from dropping the kids off at the end of the day, there’s a car accident or bad weather and return is delayed, the machine automatically clocks them out prior to them actually bringing the bus back. A lot of instances it affects to your paycheck because the time they work isn’t accurately captured.”
Lee concluded, “The most important thing is that they want to exercise their rights under federal law to have a seat at the table with their employer and bargain over everything as it relates to the job. That’s all this is. And for them, to discourage them, or attempt to deny them that right under law, a right that we labor leaders believed to be a human right, is disingenuous.”
In an email statement to Baltimore Fishbowl, Jen Burke of Zum said, “We are committed to being the employer of choice for drivers in Howard County, offering industry leading pay, benefits, work culture and career growth. We are incredibly grateful to our drivers who are essential to providing safe, reliable transportation to the students and families that we serve. We value the open lines of communication that we have with our drivers. If there is a union, that would change and we do not think that is in our drivers’ or company’s best interest. We believe that once all the facts are known, our drivers will decide that a union is not necessary.”
When reached for comment, HCPSS director of communications and engagement Brian Bassett told Fishbowl, “Bus drivers are not our employees. We contract our student transportation services out to companies who hire the drivers. We certainly greatly value the job they do on behalf of our students and schools, but they are employees of the transportation companies they work for.”
Lee pointed out that there is a shortage of Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) drivers, not just school bus drivers.
“I believe this is because it’s one of the most underappreciated professions in this country. And undervalued transportation workers move the country,” Lee said.
Lee emphasized that Zum bus employees want union representation to feel they have a voice in the company.
“The best eyes and ears that you can have is the front-line employees,” Lee said. “They should have a say, based on what they see, to help make the operation better. These people that choose these professions, CDL holders choose to be in school transportation. They’re doing it because they have a passion and they care about the job that we do. It’s a tough job, they can take their CDL and go elsewhere. But they like serving the public. And I think they should have a voice and everything that they say.”
“Not only that, Zum is a company from the West Coast,” he added. “And they need to understand that if they want to do business in the state of Maryland, they need to understand that we care about our workers. We respect their voices, and we value them. Anything less than that won’t be tolerated.”
