'Thank you to everyone': Relief, resiliency mark end of school bus driver strike

Five weeks after walking off the job, Mat-Su school bus drivers returned to transporting students to and from school Monday, after reaching an agreement with Durham School Services, the company that maintains the contract for the Matanuska Susitna Borough School District.

“The drivers had full permission to return to their routes following the ratification of the new proposal,” said Patrick FitzGerald, representing the Teamsters Local 959.

FitzGerald said that there is a sense of relief, especially after thinking an agreement might not have been reached before spring break.

“Our guys went in, offered some figures, and no one bowed out,” something he was optimistic about during the negotiations last week.

“Everyone cheered after the vote yesterday.”

“Thank you to everyone from our team at the table, the reps on the line with daily encouragement, to all of us on the line!” wrote driver Nichole Hartman, congratulating everyone for coming to an agreement.

“We gained much more than a fair contract, this changed us, we stood together, and will remain together.”

Edward Flavin, the Vice President of External Communications for National Express, the company that oversees Durham School Services, released a simple statement, saying: “We can confirm that the Strike has ended and that our team members began work today. We look forward to continuing to transport our students to and from school safely each day.”

There are still a few more details to be squared away, and all the signatures are still needed to finalize the agreement, but FitzGerald is not worried that anything will come up.

The 3-year proposal includes “strong job protections and overall economic improvements, and tools to address safety issues at the workplace,” FitzGerald said in a statement released on Sunday.

While there were some issues getting everything started Monday morning, as some buses had been taken to Fairbanks a week ago so not all were ready to go, and not every driver was able to drive, but FitzGerald

“We are so proud of the resiliency of our drivers, their courage and dedication to remain professional and working to get the students to and from school.”

There were no other details about the agreement available, but he said that once everything is finalized, there should be more information released.

Meanwhile, a regularly scheduled bus safety inspection began on Monday and is expected to take a few days. Safety had been a top issue for the drivers, who cited faulty defrost and heaters, unsafe lighting in the bus yard, and lack of external communication systems as just a few problems with safe operations of the buses.

For now, FitzGerald and the drivers are looking ahead.

“The drivers have set the standard for what Alaska will see moving forward. They have earned everything they got throughout this whole process.”