PR Newswire US, April 19, 2007, Thursday

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PR Newswire US

April 19, 2007 Thursday 11:00 PM GMT

HEADLINE: Teamsters Raise Concerns Over Antiunion Activities by FirstGroup in U.S.;

FirstGroup Worker to Speak at Friday Shareholder Meeting

DATELINE: ABERDEEN, Scotland April 19

BODY:

ABERDEEN, Scotland, April 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Shareholders in FirstGroup will be told in Aberdeen today that the company has reneged on a commitment to "stamp out anti-union behavior" in its subsidiary in the United States.

A report by academics in the UK and America has found that First Student, which operates more than 20,000 yellow school buses, is still using anti-union tactics. It accuses the company of "fighting a war" with employees and engaging in activities intended to "create an atmosphere of fear and distrust in the workplace to prevent employees forming a union."

Last year the UK's largest public transport operator faced an embarrassing shareholder revolt at its annual meeting and FirstGroup chairman Martin Gilbert was forced to promise that the group would "do everything in its power" to "stamp out anti-union behavior".

Pressure will be renewed at an Extraordinary General Meeting in Aberdeen today, called to approve FirstGroup's 1.8bn pounds Sterling takeover of Laidlaw, which operates Greyhound buses in the US. FirstGroup is also seeking a majority stake in a publicly-owned Dutch bus company Connexxion, valued at about 270m pounds Sterling.

Employee shareholders will address the meeting and provide examples of intimidatory behavior by managers at bus depots where employees are seeking union representation.

A report produced by American and British academics and employment specialists concludes that the company has "failed to live up to its commitment not to interfere with its employees' right to choose a union."

"First Student is still forcefully campaigning against workers choosing union representation and threatening dire consequences if employees succeed in their organizing efforts," the report states.

It concludes that the "centrally-directed 'union-avoidance' policy places the company "in the position of trying to swallow a rival twice its size while fighting a war with half its labor force."

A delegation of British and Dutch trade unions toured First Student depots in New York last week and heard first-hand reports of managers' hostile behavior.

Connie Torres, a driver for eight years based at Pine Bush, 70 miles north of New York City, said: "Managers at the yard used intimidation to try and stop us voting in a ballot for the union. They are behaving exactly the same today, even though we won union representation in the ballot in January.

"They have hired security guards to prevent the union coming into the yard," she said.

At FirstGroup's annual general meeting last year, more than 20 percent of the institutional shareholders refused to support the company's opposition to the introduction of a human rights policy.

Unions have raised their concerns about the company's anti-union behavior with institutional investors in meetings with the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum in Britain and the Council of Institutional Investors in the US.

Notes to editors:

The full report, FirstGroup's Neutrality Policy: Failed Implementation can be found at: http://org.teamster.org/firststudent/firstgroupneutralitypolicy.pdf .

Its authors are:

-- Dr John Logan, lecturer in employment relations and organizational

behavior at the London School of Economics

-- Professor Lance Compa, a lawyer and specialist in labor and human

rights law at Cornell University, New York

-- Fred Feinstein, is a former General Counsel to the US National Labor

Relations Board. He also served for 17 years as General Counsel to a

House of Representatives labor relations committee

The union delegation to New York comprised officials of the UK T&G transport union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from the US, the Dutch union FNV Bondgenoten and leaders of the Connexxion Works Council, also from The Netherlands.

Further information:

Tommy Campbell, T&G, Aberdeen 01224 645271, 07810 157920

Professor Lance Compa, Cornell University, 001 607 255 7314

Connie Torres (in Aberdeen) 001 202 409 4148, 001 202 297 5888

CONTACT: U.S. - Galen Munroe, +1-202-624-6904 or U.K. - Leslie Miller,

+1-202-409-4148

Web site: http://www.teamster.org/

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters