School Buses Stalled By Strike Seattle Union Drivers Reject Contract Offer For The Second Time In Three Days

Union bus drivers rejected a new contract offer Monday night and voted to strike a company that transports more than half the students attending Seattle public schools.

Drivers voted 139-100 to reject the new proposal, fashioned by a federal mediator. It’s the second time in three days that members of Teamsters Local 763 have rejected an offer from Laidlaw Transit Inc.

Greg Slaughter, Local 763 business agent, said earlier in the evening that if the new proposal failed, the drivers would be on the picket lines today.

Seattle schools will operate as usual today, although provisions will be made for students who are absent or tardy because of the strike, Seattle schools spokeswoman Dorothy Dubia said Monday night.

Seattle schools Superintendent Bill Kendrick said he was “very disappointed.”

Slaughter did not immediately return phone calls after Monday night’s vote.

The strike had been scheduled to start Monday, after drivers voted 129-99 Saturday to reject a three-year contract proposal. The lack of a pension plan was the biggest sticking point, Slaughter said.

The walkout was postponed for 24 hours after another round of talks Sunday, requested by a federal mediator, gave hope that a settlement could be reached for about 300 drivers.

Toronto-based Laidlaw contracts with the Seattle School District to transport about 13,000 students - little more than half the students attending city public schools. Students who ride Ryder buses are not affected.

Kevin Mest, Laidlaw’s state operations manager, said the company is in the process of developing a nationwide pension plan and doesn’t want to bargain over specifics in individual contracts.

The Laidlaw drivers had been working without a contract since September. Top scale pay is $12.75 an hour. It would have gone to $13.50 in the third year of the proposal, Slaughter said.

The school district planned to issue city bus tokens to middle- and high-school students, Dubia said.

There will be Seattle school staffers at the major Metro tranfer stations to help students arrive at their destinations, she said.

The strike will be hardest on elementary school children, Dubia said, who cannot ride city buses alone for safety reasons.

“We hope parents will make every effort they can to get their children to school,” she said, “but absences and tardies relating to the strike will be excused.”