PALMER – Mat-Su school bus workers will go on strike starting early next week, four days before students head out for spring break, officials with the union representing the workers announced Tuesday.
The walkout pauses daily school transportation for the district’s more than 18,000 students until workers reach a contract agreement with the district’s main school bus operator.
The strike will begin early Monday before morning student pickup, officials with Teamsters Local 959 said in a statement. It affects all student transportation to and from schools served by Durham School Services.
The strike does not affect bus service to and from Glacier View School, Su-Valley Jr./Sr. High School, and Willow, Trapper Creek or Talkeetna elementary schools, which use alternate bus contractors.
Spring break starts Friday, March 6. Students return to classrooms March 16.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the walkout will also affect special education buses.
The work stoppage comes as contract negotiations between the bus operator and the union remain at a standstill. The most recent contract between the union and Durham expired Feb. 4.
About 230 Durham employees are members of the union and include bus drivers, monitors and attendants, union officials said. Workers voted last month to authorize the strike. The union issued a 10-day strike notice to Durham last week.
Durham officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
In 2023, Mat-Su school bus workers went on strike without warning in the middle of a school day, leaving families and school administrators scrambling to arrange rides home.
Union officials pledged last month to warn families before a new walkout.
“We made a promise to the families of the Mat-Su Valley they will have ample time to prepare for a work stoppage. Letting them know now is a promise we made and kept,” union spokesperson Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement Tuesday.
Union officials said Tuesday that Durham representatives refused to meet for negotiations this week. Contract disagreements center on paid cancellation days and wages — particularly those for monitors and attendants — certain standards for training, safety and professional development, and whether workers must pay out of pocket for additional medical screenings, according to a Teamsters statement published last week.
“This unfortunate work stoppage is the result of Durham’s unwillingness to make the movement needed to reach an agreement, its failure to promptly return to the bargaining table, and its unwillingness to timely provide information requested by the union,” Teamsters officials said in a statement Tuesday.
Officials with Summit School Services, which owns Durham, said last week that they are available to meet in late March on dates they say were first proposed by the union, as long as a federal mediator is brought in to assist with the talks.
Mat-Su School District officials said the news is “disappointing.”
“We encourage the Teamsters to continue providing services and to engage in the bargaining session scheduled with Durham on March 17,” Mat-Su School District spokesman John Notestine said in a statement Tuesday.
This story originally appeared in the Mat-Su Sentinel and is republished here with permission.
