IL Central bus drivers and monitors step up with new contract

The 50 school bus drivers and monitors from the Illinois Central bus company near Peoria have seen what AFSCME has accomplished for other school bus drivers in their region. 

When they formed their own union in 2024, they vowed to achieve that same kind of progress for themselves. 

At the top of their list was securing improvements for the bus monitors. 

Bus monitors play a critical role when the bus is in motion. With the driver focused on safely operating the bus, monitors are there to make sure the students are taken care of while on the road.

But management wasn’t treating bus monitors with the respect they deserve. Their fellow union members were ready to stand up for them. 

“Management had made some very demeaning statements about monitors,” said Jack Nannen, a driver who served on the bargaining committee. “All of us drivers got together and agreed that we had to fight for them.” 

The bargaining committee was also seeking something that’s the bare minimum in every modern workplace: bathrooms with running water. The company’s employee rest rooms had been in disrepair for years, and employees were forced to use portable outdoor toilets, even in inclement weather. 

The members of AFSCME Local 3733 might be new to bargaining, but they knew beyond any doubt that they had to stick together and stand firm. And that’s just what they did. In the contract ratified by members, monitors won a $3 hourly increase in the first year, and 3% in each of the contract’s remaining two years. They also bumped up field trip pay by almost $5 an hour.

And they got management to agree to meet the most basic of necessities: remodeled indoor bathrooms complete with running water.

“Things are now a lot better at Illinois Central,” Nannen said. 

The bargaining committee included Nannen, Kevin Weisling, Connie Alberts, Peggy Smith and Dave Plunkett. The committee was led by Council 31 Staff Representative Nick Richards.