As of Monday, October 9th, 2023 the Bus Drivers and Dispatchers of Santa Clarita have gone on strike causing almost all routes to be suspended. Demands for better contracts and increased wages are why they are striking. The numerous students and adults who use this resource to get to work and school are affected by this and have struggled to find their new way of temporary transportation. The strike has been going on for over two weeks and will not come to an end until a fair contract is reached.
This has affected students attending Saugus High School and any other school in the William S. Hart district making them tardy to school the first two days of the strike. For the students that have struggled from this they have provided a school tripper service to accommodate their needs. Although it’s a very limited service it’s fair-free for the students who are riders of the bus. The city continues to try and increase service levels but also coordinate with the Hart district.
Over 200 Bus drivers and dispatchers were going around holding signs that said things like “strike against MV transit”. The reason behind their protesting is for the not surprising reason of wanting a raise. The strike was declared in September but was not enforced until the beginning of October. They have been offering employees 19.75$ per hour which increases by 0.25$ after one year. Then as the years go by it starts to increase more but by little amounts of cent.
Some citizens of Santa Clarita rely on the bus routes to get around town so as for them there have been limited routes provided. In total there are 13 routes, 6 of them being emergency routes, 6 of them being school tripper routes, and one of them is a Dial/Access route that’s only available to use on Fridays. As of Tuesday, October 17th there have been two more emergency routes added, but there were few routes suspended due to limited drivers. These limited bus services are in use Monday-Friday from 6am-9pm. On Saturdays and Sundays there are no routes provided for riders. The buses they have been provided have been white buses which aren’t the same city buses.
We interviewed Saugus Student Angel Gonzalez who has been affected by the bus strike. Angel shared with us that the new bus system has caused him to be late to school, “the bus tends to be late to the stop a lot causing me to be late to school”. Angel had also noticed that “A lot of people have stopped riding the bus because of the strike”.
The strike has had a major impact on riders of Santa Clarita bus transit who have depended on it for work, school, and other destinations. We hope the strike comes to an end soon but bus drivers have made it clear that it will not end until they receive their wishes.
