Labor Federation, Lawmakers Urge Baumann/Acme Bus to Respect Workers' Rights

Officials Concerned by Company Attacks on Union

BOHEMIA, N.Y., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Elected officials joined
leaders of the Long Island Federation of Labor today to urge Baumann/Acme Bus
Co. to respect workers' rights and stop committing Unfair Labor Practices as
its employees strive to organize into Teamsters Local 1205.

Baumann/Acme employs over 2,000 people, and government and labor leaders
condemned the company for ongoing harassment and intimidation of its workers,
especially in light of the fact that the company receives public funding.

"These hardworking men and women want union representation so they can
effectively address and change their low wages, unaffordable medical benefits
and other intolerable working conditions," said Timothy Lynch, President of
Teamsters Local 1205. "And it is their legal right to decide whether to form a
union free from company interference."

In a scathing formal complaint, the National Labor Relations Board (an agency
of the Federal Government) found that Baumann/Acme Bus Co. has committed many
serious unfair labor practices. The Board states that Baumann/Acme "has been
interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the
rights guaranteed" them by the National Labor Relations Act. The Labor Board
complaint was one of the reasons numerous state and local leaders, including
the governor, signed an Appeal for Justice that was sent to the company on
behalf of the workers.

"The freedom to form and join unions is a fundamental human right protected by
our state's and nation's labor laws," wrote Governor David Paterson in a
letter to Baumann/Acme. "It is a right for which millions of Americans have
struggled to help ensure adequate wages, health care coverage and retirement
security."

Also Monday, the Long Island Federation of Labor issued a strongly worded
letter to the company in support of the Baumann/Acme workers' efforts to join
Teamsters Local 1205. The Federation represents 250,000 members across Long
Island.

Dozens of bus drivers participated in Monday's press conference. Each feels
passionately about the need for union representation on the job.

"Management treats us like garbage," said Alicia Ocasio, a driver for six
years at the Baumann/Acme bus yard in Bohemia. "They cut our pay and we get no
respect from them."

"I want to join the union in order to better my life and that of my family,"
said Maria Weastler, a driver at the Baumann/Acme bus yard in Westbury. "We
need the union's support."

The men and women employed by Baumann/Acme Bus Co. work at the nine bus yards
it operates across Long Island. The company, based in Bohemia, New York, has
sales of over $100 million per year.

Teamsters Local 1205 is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, which represents 1.4 million working people nationwide, including
more than 75,000 school bus industry employees.

SOURCE Teamsters Local Union 1205

Timothy Lynch of the Teamsters Local Union 1205, +1-516-652-5497