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With the Georgia Milestones test results released this week, educators have probably put improving student academic successes at the top of their list. But 35 years ago, actually getting kids to class was the priority. On Nov. 20, 1980 a wildcat strike by bus drivers of the National Transportation Service forced the closing of Atlanta’s public schools for the day.
Alonzo Crim, superintendent of schools, closed the schools shortly before 7 a.m. Picketing drivers who demanded higher wages and better ways to deal with unruly children prevented the buses from getting to their routes. It appeared that no more than 40 of the district’s 232 buses would roll that morning.
Crim cited the danger of leaving kids stranded on the streets as the justification for the last-minute shutdown. However, many students were already on their way to school and there were reports of missing children throughout the morning.
The concern was exacerbated by deaths and disappearances at the time of 15 children in the last 16 months.
Crim said he realized he’d be criticized whether he closed school or not and made the decision to open the next day.
The strike lasted the rest of the month, with drivers sporadically giving up the fight and crossing the picket line. The walkout started on a Thursday and by Wednesday of the next week more than half the drivers were back at work.
NTS General Manager Michael Moseley refused to meet with the workers collectively, but talked individually to drivers and let many come back to work.
To ensure kids would get to school, MARTA offered a half-price fare of 25 cents that lasted through the strike.
After the winter break, all buses were running on Jan. 5.
The drivers had demanded a pay raise from $3.50 an hour for most drivers to $5 an hour across the board. The company did offer to put in monitor on buses to keep disruptive kids under control. And the school system added that it would give drivers discipline slips to write up students with bad behavior.
In the end, most of the drivers went back to virtually the same conditions. The 20 who were fired tried to rekindle the walkout a month later to no avail.
Fulton County superior court judge Luther Alverson had ordered them back to work on the basis of a no-strike clause in the contract between the National Transportation Service and Teamsters Union Local 528.
Several drivers, including the appointed spokesman Rodrick Robinson, were cited for contempt. The strikers claimed no affiliation with the union.
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