Veteran School Bus Driver Unfairly Removed

First Student School Bus Driver Nadia Micourt
First Student School Bus Driver Nadia Micourt

School Bus workers and TWU Local 100 are fighting the unjust removal of a veteran bus driver by the Greenwich public school district in Connecticut.

An assistant superintendent, claiming she observed Driver Nadia Micourt cross over the yellow line while driving students, unilaterally decertified Micourt – meaning she can’t work in the district.

Approximately 80 drivers and bus monitors, employed by the First Student transportation company, didn’t show up to work on Monday, April 17, 2023, shutting down all service to district schools, according to Local 100 Executive Board members Gus Moghrabi and Mary Pryce, who were on scene.

“We don’t want to disappoint our students,” Pryce, also the Section Chair, said. “We don’t want to disappoint our schools. It’s just the drivers are very distraught over the decision that the district made.”

Local 100’s Executive Director of Organizing Frank McCann told the media that the district didn’t even bother to look at video from Micourt’s bus or provide an opportunity to defend herself before imposing the “draconian” action.

“No hearing. No due process. Nothing,” McCann said. “This is a horrendous abuse of power.”

Micourt, 58, has been driving in the district for 23 years. She doesn’t have a single accident on her record.

Local 100’s contract is with the employer, First Student. The private company has a separate contract with the school district that grants administrators the ability to decertify a driver unilaterally. The company has agreed to the union’s request to pay Micourt for days missed in Greenwich, and to find her another out-of-district bus route for now.

The fight, which has garnered significant media coverage, isn’t over. Local 100 will be rallying in Greenwich and packing the Board of Education meeting Thursday night, April 20th. The union has met with the town’s First Selectman (mayor), and he has agreed to facilitate mediation.