April 10, 2005

 

LEGISLATORS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVE STEWART-COUSINS, ALVARADO RESOLUTION CALLING FOR ROUND-THE-CLOCK TALKS UNTIL A NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT IS REACHED IN LIBERTY BUS STRIKE

 
County Legislators Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D,I,WF-Yonkers) and José Alvarado (D,I,WF-Yonkers) introduced a resolution at today's Board meeting calling for Liberty Lines and TWU representatives to immediately return to the bargaining table for round-the-clock talks until a negotiated settlement is reached in the forty day old bus strike.
 
The Board reacted with bi-partisan support by voting unanimously to pass the resolution.
 
Citing a number of instances of how the strike has negatively impacted seniors and working families as well as the bus drivers, Stewart-Cousins said, "We're not taking sides. We're just saying that this situation is so serious that the parties have a responsibility to stay at the table talking, in good faith, until a solution is reached."
 
Stewart-Cousins noted that Yonkers school children have been particularly hard hit by the strike since they depend upon the Bee Line bus system to get to school.  "There are high school seniors a couple of months away from taking Regents exams," she said. "Their future may be on hold if they don't pass these exams."
 
 "There is a large percentage of single parents in my district," Alvarado said. "My office has been flooded with phone calls from these parents who say they are faced with an impossible choice---pay the rent or pay for cabfare to get their children to school. I know how important education is to getting ahead. I also know what it’s like to have the odds stacked against you in trying to complete your education. This strike is disproportionately impacting the county’s neediest which makes it all the more critical that all the parties involved work relentlessly to find a solution.”

County Legislator Gordon Burrows (R-Yonkers) remarked that the Yonkers school system is losing critically needed state reimbursement funds linked to a school’s attendance record.
 
“The absentee rate in the schools has skyrocketed during the strike,” said Burrows. “This means a loss of state aid to the Yonkers school system, already reeling from underfunding. With so much lost instruction time, the strike is setting up the very real possibility that kids will be forced to repeat the year, further stressing families and the school system.”

Legislator Bernice Spreckman (R-Yonkers), the fourth Yonkers legislator, offered her full support for the resolution.