Bus Drivers

Negotiations broke down Friday between striking school bus drivers and the Los Angeles Unified School District's biggest transportation contractor. As a result, schedule disruptions affecting 20,000 students are expected to continue into a second week. On Thursday, Teamsters Local 572 and the bus company, Laidlaw Education Services, said they had made progress in their federally mediated talks.

About 9,000 union employees of Greyhound Lines went on strike early today after a marathon negotiations failed to produce a new contract agreement with the nation's largest intercity bus line. Picket lines went up just after midnight outside Greyhound terminals across the country. Drivers were told to abandon their buses at the nearest terminal. A federal mediator had joined the negotiations in Scottsdale late Thursday in an attempt to avert a walkout, while Greyhound Lines Inc.

With the possibility of a strike affecting 110,000 regular bus riders in the balance, the Orange County Transit District's 732 bus drivers are to vote Sunday night on whether to accept what OCTD officials are calling their final contract offer. Negotiations between the United Transportation Union Local 19 and OCTD officials ended late Thursday night with OCTD presenting its "last and final offer," said OCTD spokeswoman Joanne Curran.

Union bus drivers, hoping to end a bitter six-month dispute with the Orange County Transit District, voted by a 3-1 margin to approve a new contract with management late Sunday. Drivers voted 171 to 57 to approve the tentative contract, union officials said. The turnout was less than one-third of the union's 732 members. Juliene Smith, chairwoman of Tustin-based United Transportation Union Local 19, had predicted the overwhelming approval of the new agreement.

Bus drivers in Orange County, who have worked without a labor contract since Oct. 30, launched a strike Monday that stranded thousands of commuters. The walkout--which came after drivers rejected Orange County Transit District officials' final contract offer Sunday night--severed most OCTD bus links with the Southern California Rapid Transit District. The strike does not affect RTD bus schedules.

Orange County transit officials Monday warned striking bus drivers to return to work within one week or lose their jobs, an action the drivers quickly denounced as an attempt at "union busting." As the walkout entered its eighth day, strike leaders vowed to defy the Orange County Transit District's Dec.

Public bus drivers in the Antelope Valley went on strike early Monday morning, partially disrupting service and making some Los Angeles-bound commuters late for work and some students tardy for school. The work stoppage by bus drivers and mechanics of Local 572 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters affected the Antelope Valley Transit Authority, which carries more than 100,000 people monthly on its commuter lines, local routes and Dial-a-Ride service.

A state Assembly committee will look into the hiring practices and supervision at Laidlaw Transit, the largest school transportation contractor in Los Angeles, following the arrests of two Laidlaw employees accused of driving buses while drunk. Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said the Assembly Transportation Committee, which he chairs, will review Laidlaw practices at a hearing Feb. 15.

Despite substantial strides in controlling the problem at the RTD, the emotional issue of drug use by bus drivers reared its head in Los Angeles again this week, this time over a pending federal regulation that will require public transit systems to randomly test train and bus operators.

Several Orange County bus drivers--one of whom fainted after being relieved in the middle of a work shift--became ill in February after their buses were sprayed with a pesticide for cockroaches. Orange County Transit District officials blamed a one-time mix-up involving a delivery of the wrong pesticide to the district. A smelly, oil-based version of a Johnson Wax product called Bolt was delivered to the district instead of the water-based version normally used to spray the buses.