School-Bus Union Head Faces Unified Opposition

Michael Cordiello, the embattled president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union whose school-bus members have had their pay and benefits sharply reduced since then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg in early 2013 eliminated a contract clause protecting employee compensation and job rights, is facing a stiff re-election challenge from an opposition that has coalesced after being sharply divided in two previous elections.

Ballots were sent out to union members May 19 and are due back June 12, when they will be counted by the American Arbitration Association. The voting rolls in the union have become tangled, dissidents say, by layoffs from the bus companies that have left some veteran workers out of jobs and ineligible to vote while new hires working for non-union companies that have contracts with the Department of Education will, as dues-paying members, be able to participate. There are also 1,800 members facing layoffs effective June 30.