No deal in Mat-Su bus strike as negotiations stall again
The strike will enter its eighth week and could last through the end of the school year, union officials said.
What you need to know:
- The Mat-Su school bus strike will enter its eighth week after contract talks between Teamsters Local 959 and Durham School Services broke down, with no new negotiations scheduled.
- The dispute centers on a company proposal requiring workers to pay for additional health screenings, union officials said.
- The strike has left about 18,000 students without bus service. Union officials said they are prepared to continue through the end of the school year if needed.
- Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.
PALMER — A Mat-Su school bus worker strike will continue into an eighth week after the latest contract talks between an employee union and the bus company broke down Thursday, union officials said in an interview.
Talks between the union and Durham School Services were held online Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, Teamsters Local 959 officials said.
No new negotiation dates are currently scheduled, they said. The walkout started March 2.
Central to the stalemate is a Durham proposal that bus workers must pay out of pocket for additional health screenings that go beyond those mandated under state law, union officials said. Durham officials tentatively agreed to relax their rules around those screenings, then walked back that decision, citing budget concerns, Teamsters spokesman Patrick Fitzgerald said in an interview.
Durham officials said they hope to reach an agreement soon.
"We are bargaining in good faith and had hoped to reach an agreement today, but a couple of items remain outstanding," Durham spokesman Edward Flavin said in a statement Thursday. "We are in the proces of scheduling future negotiation dates."
The ongoing walkout leaves about 18,000 Matanuska-Susitna School District students without bus service and more than 200 bus employees on the strike line, including bus drivers, attendants and monitors.
Mat-Su district officials said they are disappointed that Durham and the Teamsters have not reached an agreement.
“We had heard they are close, and we hoped they were close and we would have transportation available through the end of the year — that’s obviously not the case,” district spokesman John Notestine said in an interview.
Fitzgerald said that while he hopes they come to an agreement soon, the workers are willing to strike through the end of the school year.
“We are planning on striking until we can come to an agreement on a contract,” he said. “We definitely don’t want it to go to the end of the school year — we don’t even want to go to the end of the week, which is tomorrow — but here we are.”
Overall school attendance across the region dropped about 2.2% compared with last year between the first day of the strike and early this month, the most recent date for which data were available.
A previous strike in 2023 lasted just over a month and followed months of rotating no-bus-service days for students triggered by insufficient staffing.
The district saves about $100,000 each day buses do not run, administrators told the School Board during a meeting last month.
The district spends about $20 million each year on student transportation, with about $3.5 million coming from local taxpayers and the rest from the state, officials said during the meeting. Any money saved as a result of the strike will go toward future transportation costs, they said.
This story was updated April 16 to include a statement from Durham School Services officials.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com