School bus drivers in Polk County are rallying for a raise, and they say this isn’t their first time around the block.

“We started this a year ago,” said VP of Local 2227 Union, James Hopson. “We’ve negotiated one time, but we were shut down; we’ve tried to get another date, but they don’t want to. They’re doing a superintendent forum tonight so, we’re gathering to demonstrate. We need to set a date.”

A group of Local 2227 union members met outside of the Jim Miles Center in Lakeland to voice their concerns.

“COVID really ties into it because we lost a lot of drivers and employees during that time,” Hopson explained. “We’re doing extra work. We’re not getting any more pay. We’re doing twice as many trips, twice as much cleaning. We’re doing twice as much paperwork; everything that we do has amplified hundreds compared to what it was last year.

Hopson said the traditional raise for bus drivers could take five years.

“That means a person that just started is making the same as a person who’s been around for five or six years, sometimes,” he said. “We need the school board to give us a date so we can negotiate a raise.”

AFSCME Local 2227, which has been in negotiations with the Polk County School district for several months, is asking for a $2 per hour raise for non-instructional employees, including:

• Bus drivers
• Food service workers
• Mechanics
• Carpenters, and more 

“Polk County School board can’t get it together and find us the money. They always put us at the bottom, and then we wash out,” union member Margie Paterson told Spectrum News. “Because I know what it’s like – 30 plus years to work three jobs and not have time to take your kids to those ball games. I know what it’s like.”

AFSCME members did not get a raise in 2020, and many are still well below $10 an hour.

Spectrum News has reached out to the school board and several members independently for comment but has not heard back.

This story will be updated.