South Sound News

Bus drivers' strike causes school delays in Steilacoom

STEILACOOM, Wash. — A strike by bus drivers in Steilacoom was responsible for a two-hour school delay Wednesday morning.

They have since made an agreement, but it's only temporary.

Parents told KIRO 7 they had to scramble to make last-minute plans.

“It threw us off schedule a little bit today. Both of our kids can't make it on time for school and I can't go to work on time also,” parent Joel Sookram said.

The delay was caused by a general strike by 20 Steilacoom School District bus drivers, who all say their pay of $12.75 an hour is not a livable wage.

It follows months of contract dispute between their union, Teamsters Local 313, and the Steilacoom School District contracted vendor, First Student Transportation.

The strike happened just hours before the first bell.

“One thing people need to understand about school bus drivers is that they think these kids are their own kids, and they treat them like their own kids, and they want to make sure they're as safe as possible on those buses and they need to be compensated for that,” said Bob McDonald with Teamsters Local 313.

The school district notified parents just before 6 a.m. Wednesday, issuing a statement:

"We are extremely disappointed and expect all contractual obligations to be fulfilled. First Student management assured us we would not experience a disruption in our transportation services during their employee negotiations."

About two hours later, the two sides reached a temporary agreement which got the buses rolling, but on a two-hour delay.

Parents say they hope another strike doesn't happen again.

“For the bus drivers, I understand what they're going through, but it's really inconvenient for the rest of us. I wish we could have had a better way to react to this,” said Sookram.

Neither the district nor the bus drivers’ union would disclose the terms of the temporary agreement.