By SUZANNE DOWNING
March 1, 2026 – Like their grandparents before them, students in the Mat-Su may have to walk 10 miles in the snow to school this week. Uphill both ways. Well, that might be how it gets told to the grandkids someday.
Across the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, families are scrambling to adjust schedules after more than 200 school bus workers walked off the job, disrupting transportation for the majority of the district’s 18,000-plus students.
The strike begins March 2, having been called by Teamsters Local 959 against Durham School Services.
It affects all the main areas served by Durham. Families have been advised to arrange alternative transportation, as the district warned that no bus service should be expected in impacted areas.
Certain schools are not affected, including those served by alternative contractors or in more remote areas such as Glacier View School, Su-Valley Jr./Sr. High School, and some schools in Willow, Trapper Creek, and Talkeetna.
Fractious negotiations between Durham and the union have been underway since last June, and the contract expired Feb. 4. Sticking points include wages, training requirements, health check policies, and other contract terms. In January, Durham presented what it described as a “final offer,” one that the union rejected.
No negotiations occurred during February. Union representatives accused the company of delays. After authorizing strike action, the union issued a 10-day strike notice in mid-February. The work stoppage follows a similar strike in 2023 involving the same bargaining unit.
Durham School Services called on the union to avoid prolonging the strike and to honor previously scheduled negotiation dates of March 17–18, 2026, when both sides are expected to meet with a mediator.
In statements, the company said it remains prepared to negotiate and argued that an early walkout unnecessarily disrupts families, pointing to the impact of the 2023 strike.
The strike comes just days before the district’s scheduled spring break, which begins March 6. Students are set to return March 16.
As of now, no resolution has been announced. The duration of the strike will depend on whether the two sides can reach a contract agreement.
In the meantime, Mat-Su parents face a week of logistical challenges, with carpools, adjusted work schedules, and last-minute childcare arrangements replacing the familiar yellow buses that typically carry thousands of students across the borough each day.
6 thoughts on “More than 200 Mat-Su school bus workers strike, making Monday messy for families”
Parents should be allowed to sue the Union for every penny they have in the bank.
With the strike causing such a mess for our kids’ schedules, I’m trying to look into how these big service providers like Durham actually manage their local operations and licensing during labor disputes. Does anyone know if there are specific federal transparency standards they have to follow now, similar to how international service firms are being regulated in other sectors like we see for transparency and compliance? I’m just wondering if there’s a way for the school board to hold them more accountable for these service gaps.
One more thing that reminds me how much Wasilla and Palmer ARE downwardly going the same direction as Anchorage
You guys living there just don’t realize it yet
Government dependents shouldn’t be allowed to organize into a union. The money they are bargaining for doesn’t even belong to them. It’s the taxpayers money what businesses have earned.
Seems to me that the borough needs to dump durham. They are nothing but trouble from the start. If they can’t fulfill the contract they made with the tax payers then they need to refund any money they did not earn and be kicked out. Time for a new company to take over. perhaps the old one that didn’t have all this issue.
If the borough can’t or won’t enforce the contract, then maybe we need to fire the borough manager and anybody else that allows this behavior and replace them too.
In the old terms…. keep your promises.
Terminate Durham’s contract immediately and put the contract out for bid. Union companies need not apply.
100%….. breach of contract and refund money for services not provided!