Change to Win unions are standing up to FirstGroup/First Student in our Driving Up Standards Together campaign.

• FirstGroup is a transportation company based in the United Kingdom. It is the largest operator of transit buses there.
• The company’s total income in 2005 was more than $5 billion. Its operating profit was $397.5 million.¹
• FirstGroup made more than $110 million in profits on its U.S. operations in 2004.²
• With 14% market share, its U.S. school bus subsidiary, First Student, is the second largest operator of private school buses in the United States.³

• In locations such as Seattle workers typically make $12 an hour and have no paid vacations, no access to affordable health insurance and no paid sick leave.⁵

• Moir Lockhead, CEO of FirstGroup, received total annual compensation of $2.6 million in 2005.⁶
• Lockhead's compensation amounted to about $755 an hour! That's more than 104 times as much as First Student employees making $12 an hour earn.
• Lockhead lives on a 300-acre estate in Scotland where his daughter spends her time raising prize cattle.⁷

• As First Student has expanded in the United States, it has experienced a number of disturbing incidents. The company’s record reveals a history of problems including: accidents, poor working conditions and a failure to meet basic obligations, such as picking up students on time.⁸
• In Massachusetts, the Chicopee School Committee fired First Student in response to complaints that special education students were arriving late or not being picked up at all.
• In May 2002, a First Student bus accident in the Oregon Trail School District sent 12 people to the hospital. The school superintendent was not notified of the accident by First Student – she first learned about it when a TV reporter called her. She told the Portland Oregonian she was appalled by the way First Student handled the accident. The school district demanded that the company replace the transportation manager assigned to the district.
• Public records for the 2004-2005 school year show that Duval County Public Schools in Florida assessed numerous penalties against First Student, including for the failure of some buses “to follow railroad crossing stop procedures.”  The school district characterized these incidents as “inexcusable,” noting that they “endangered the safety and welfare of students."
• A First Student driver shortage caused widespread problems in Jacksonville in 2001. Some students had to walk five miles to school when the company started the school year 50 drivers short. An audit showed that 77 of the company’s drivers lacked proper certification.
• First Student has difficulty maintaining a steady workforce. During the 2003-2004 school year in Seattle, Washington, its driver turnover rate was nearly 28%. During the 2004-2005 school year, its driver turnover rate was nearly 27%. FirstGroup has estimated its North American turnover rate to be around 30%. 

• A 2003 complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board regional director alleged that company management, including its chief operating officer – Carey Paster, violated federal law when it threatened that if employees selected a union the company would withhold from employees their annual pay raise, no longer issue monthly or yearly bonuses to employees, and no longer file for unemployment benefits for employees. While First Student denied these allegations, the company did agree to settle the case by paying $16,000 to the discharged employee and posting a notice promising not to retaliate if workers joined a union.⁹
• In Florida, First Student sent to employees three letters in 2004 denigrating unions and encouraging workers to refuse to sign a union card if asked to do so by co-workers or union organizers.¹⁰
• In 2004, First Student held a training session in Florida during which company managers were encouraged to stop unionization among their employees. One document given to First Student managers stated: “Unions no longer serve any useful purpose. Their time has passed."¹¹
• The 2004 First Student U.S. employee handbook includes a “Union Free” section that states: “First Student will vigorously oppose any attempt by a union to organize our employees...." 12  First Student's employee handbook has since been modified after criticism of its "Union Free" clause.

1. FirstGroup Annual Report 2005: Transforming Travel, p. 34.
2. FirstGroup Annual Report 2004: Transforming Travel in 2003/04, p. 1.
3. Service Employees International Union, US Student Transportation, p.6.
4. FirstGroup Corporate Social Responsibility 2003/04, p. 42.
5. First Student Watch: Driving Down Standards in Seattle, http://www.firststudentwatch.info/; accessed April 21, 2006.
6. Lockheed's compensation was $2.1 million (PIRC: FirstGroup PLC, July 1, 2005, p. 8) and a monetary value of $500,000 in stock options (FirstGroup Annual Report 2005: Transforming Travel, p. 28).
7. Guardian,“Angry-but not off the rails,” April 26, 2003.
8. First Student Watch: Driving Down Standards in Seattle: http://www.firststudentwatch.info/; accessed April 21, 2006.
9. Service Employees International Union, FirstGroup: Driving Down Standards?, p. 2.
10. Driving Up Standards Together; http://www.drivingupstandards.org/; accessed April 21, 2006.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.