150 Seattle school bus drivers to strike over contract negotiations
SEATTLE - Nearly 150 bus drivers for the Seattle School District are poised to strike, citing ‘frustratingly’ slow contract negotiations with Zum, one of the two companies providing bus services for schools.
Workers represented by Teamsters nearly unanimously voted—95%—to authorize a work stoppage.
The union argues that negotiations for a first contract have been dragging for months. With the end of the school year approaching, union members say this strike makes it clear that "they are tired of working without a contract."
The school district’s bus service has been fraught with complications since 2022, when Zum agreed to share a contract with the original bus vendor, First Student.
In 2022, FOX 13 reported First Student was facing hundreds of safety violations, which have since been settled with the state. This led the district to reconsider their choice of vendor, and they awarded a contract to Zum in Spring 2022. However, by the summer, Zum announced they could not fulfill the terms of the contract and ended up splitting it with First Student for the school year.
"As these negotiations have dragged on, it has become clear that Zum made an unrealistically low bid to the Seattle School District to take this work, and they want to pass responsibility for that decision onto their workers rather than themselves," said Teamsters Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks. "These hardworking bus drivers refuse to accept less than they deserve just to help protect Zum’s bottom line, especially when Zum executives were the ones who made the poor business decision to underbid this contract. They can either live with that decision, or they can face a strike by their workforce."
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Teamsters says the First Student contract sets a clear standard for bus drivers and mechanics, yet Zum will not agree to allow union drivers to honor picket lines standard in Teamsters contracts.