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Baumann Bus Company announced this week it will be permanently closing its doors after five decades, costing 900 jobs of previously laid-off drivers who will now not be hired back.
The company was contracted with the Freeport, Baldwin, Rockville Centre, Valley Stream, Malverne, East Meadow, Merrick, Bellmore, Roslyn, Hewlett-Woodmere, and Long Beach school districts.
When the pandemic hit in early March, the drivers were temporarily laid off with the hope they’d be rehired once the school year resumed.
However, without income from school districts, the company was forced to permanently close.
"This has been an ongoing issue since Governor Cuomo removed the 180-day requirement for a school district to maintain state aid. That state aid is supposed to be used to pay district employees and vendors,” Dan DeCrotie, head of a Teamsters union representing the workers said. “This has not happened.
“The lack of clarity or guidance from the NYSED regarding this issue has resulted in most districts not paying their school bus transportation companies, and now you see the results,” he added.
“Approximately 900 hard-working members who transport the most precious cargo there is on a daily basis now find themselves unemployed."
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