Antelope Valley School Drivers Vote to Strike

Employees of the school bus agency that serves eight Antelope Valley school districts voted Tuesday to authorize a strike, complaining about stalled negotiations and proposed reductions in benefits.

School bus drivers, mechanics and office workers at the Antelope Valley Schools Transportation Agency, which carries about 17,000 students daily, voted 90 to 17 in favor of a strike.

They set no specific strike deadline, said Sharon Cottee, president of the employees’ union.

Agency workers are angry about proposals that would give management the ability to unilaterally change drivers’ work hours, delete guaranteed two-hour minimum pay when they are called to work and substantially cut sick-time benefits, said Cottee, a driver for five years.

“They’re trying to take some things away from us that we’ve had since the beginning,” said Cottee, president of Chapter 652 of the California School Employees Assn. The union group has represented agency employees since it was formed in 1980.

The agency is operated by the Antelope Valley Union High School District and seven elementary districts: Palmdale, Lancaster, Westside Union, Keppel Union, Wilsona, Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes Union and Gorman.

The agency’s three-year contract with its employees expired at the end of June. The union was asking for a 10% pay raise, and the agency had offered only 5.5%, but Cottee said pay was not a major issue of the dispute.