On Thursday morning, after the end of the morning school outings, school bus drivers and Durham bus service attendants gathered outside the marshalling yard to draw attention to ongoing negotiations between Teamsters Local 959 which represents Durham bus drivers and services.
“We are trying to show Durham, the school board and the people of the Mat-Su Valley that we are united and that we are not going to back down from the issues we are discussing at the bargaining table,” said Patrick FitzGerald of Teamsters Local 959. “Safety is our primary concern, and requests for safety improvements have gone unanswered from the company (Durham). This action and the 98% approval of a strike vote show that we are united as a bargaining unit.
Several weeks ago, truck drivers, monitors and attendants voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a strike if negotiations did not result in an agreement. Since then, there have been several meetings between the Teamsters and Durham, but no agreement yet. The next trading dates are set for January 30 and 31.
Dozens of drivers and supporters have rallied their support demanding that their safety concerns be addressed. As returning buses and cars honked and waved signs of support, bus drivers waved signs, all with the same message: take care of the buses that take care of children.
“These guys are all here, unpaid, because it’s important to them,” said Kelsey Taylor, union representative for school bus drivers.
“My main concern is safety,” said Jeff Adams, a bus driver who has been driving for 2 years. “I asked 4 times for good wipers. I finally got them today. It was hard to see the white lines, and I want to keep the child safe. As anyone driving the local roads in recent days can attest, spray from the melting snow has been a liability, coating windshields and windows in dirt.
Windshield wipers were just the latest on the list of safety issues drivers asked Durham to fix. One of the biggest concerns for drivers is getting buses plugged in at night.
“Cold starts are difficult for them. I’ve had a bus break down before,” Adams said.
“Who does not have?” added fellow bus driver Dennis Little.
Adams had previously driven for First Student and says that when they held the contract, the conditions at the bus barn were excellent.
“They had all the outlets, they had rails with letters indicating where each person enters and where they are going to be. There are no plugins here. They have electricity, but they started late, around September,” Adams said, adding that they weren’t even sure if electricity was still running through the entire bus station.
An additional safety issue for drivers is the lack of heating in the buses. Taylor explains that buses must maintain a minimum of 45 degrees required by the state of Alaska in order to transport children.
Another safety issue for drivers is the two-way radio systems on every bus, which Adams says are horrible.
“If we need help on the road, either they’re too busy or they can’t understand us, we can’t understand them, that’s a big problem for me,” he said.
Earlier this year, Durham to Fairbanks sent out buses with no working radios, or some that were tuned to the wrong frequency, says Taylor, who says there were radios, but he couldn’t say specifically
“We had buses on the first day of school that the radios weren’t there or weren’t working.”
The radios played a role in some of the high-profile mix-ups during the first days of school, when some children took the wrong bus or missed their stops altogether.
“It’s normal for children to get on the wrong buses, it’s normal. Or they’re on the wrong district list, that’s normal. But when you have a working radio, you can quickly make a call and find out where that child is, let a parent know. For this to work you need to be able to reach someone, which couldn’t happen because they couldn’t answer the phone here. You have to be able to call the buses on the radio – this couldn’t happen, and people were terrified and called the police.
Adams, who was in law enforcement in Montana, says that just like in law enforcement, radios are also a valuable asset to drivers.
“Radios are important to me…it’s your lifeline.
There are also mechanical problems on the buses that need to be fixed, according to drivers who say that often the “check engine” lights appear but mechanics pay them little or no attention and are told to “continue to drive them”. .”
“I lost about a quarter of my power, so I go out on the Parks Highway and do 45 when other riders pass me. It’s not really a safe situation; you’re kind of an obstacle to traffic,” Adams said.
Buses receive an electronic tablet in which drivers must report problems, if one is available.
“I don’t have a working one and have to fill out sheets of paper and have no idea where they go, if they’re even seen by maintenance,” driver Zach Miller said.
For many parents who are quick to blame drivers for late arrivals or missed stops dropping off children, which happened several times at the start of the school year, drivers would like people to know how they feel parental frustration.
“I’m sure the community is aware that we’ve had delayed buses all year. Some of the simpler and more straightforward solutions, like assigned parking for each bus, are something we haven’t been able to accomplish here,” Taylor said.
“These guys are here because they care about us. They need enough time and good conditions to get out and make sure the buses are safe to transport my child,” says Taylor, whose own child lives in the district and uses the bus.
Most bus drivers have children and even grandchildren who use the buses to and from school, or have driven long enough that the students they once drove now have children of their own in the buses.
“I’ve seen people in jobs that say ‘you look familiar’ and look at the back of his head (which has a long white ponytail) and say ‘you were my driver!’ recalls Little, who drove school buses for the Mat-Su and Anchorage school districts for 26 years.
When asked what Durham’s response is when the various concerns are brought to their attention, drivers say they are told, “Oh we’re going, we’re working on it, be patient.”
“When they’re dispatched, we deal with late buses almost every day, and that’s because these guys aren’t getting the tools they need to do their jobs,” Little said.
“We have a lot of kids waiting outside, and it’s cold out there, we don’t like to see that,” Miller says, adding, “every 10 minutes we’re late, your kid stands at zero -weather degrees for 10 minutes.
As for issues or concerns about pay, Taylor says that while not all of the issues drivers face are economic, it’s clear to none that entry-level drivers in Anchorage earn less than the drivers of the Mat-Su.
“I can tell you that 35 miles down the road, Anchorage school district pay drivers with no experience go through training and start driving on the first day at $25 an hour, which is way more than what those guys get paid,” said Taylor, who said Durham’s most experienced journeyman drivers earn $25.13 an hour.
“I don’t think in this community school bus drivers are worth less than school bus drivers in the school district of Anchorage, or in Fairbanks, where the starting salaries for the same company are close to $27 an hour.”
Recruiting and retaining hard-working, ethical people continues to be a struggle for the district, which has seen a loss of drivers since the fall.
“We have lost more than 25 experienced drivers since the start of the school year because they take their responsibilities seriously and have to run late, because they have no right, no time, they don’t have the tools they need,” says Taylor, who adds that:
“They take great pride in the services they provide to the community, the accountability they have, and something as simple as not having enough plug-ins for the buses or the heaters not don’t work on many of the buses are not fair for drivers or children.
Durham Bus Services did not respond to request for comment at this time.