BUS STRIKE STRANDS LAUSD STUDENTS.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Staff Writer

A strike Tuesday by more than 700 contract bus drivers stranded about 20,000 Los Angeles students or left them waiting for hours to get to and from school.

Field trips and after-school activities were canceled throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District. An undetermined number of students gave up on waiting for buses and went home as district officials scrambled to respond to the crisis.

They put more than 120 reserve buses into service, enlisted relief drivers from neighboring school districts and called on LAUSD drivers to pick up additional routes after completing their regular routes. Officials said some students waited up to two hours for a bus.

The striking drivers, Teamsters union members employed by Laidlaw Transit Inc., the largest of five private bus companies under contract with the LAUSD, picketed outside bus yards citywide.

Paid about two-thirds of what LAUSD drivers make, they are seeking higher wages and better health and pension plans - issues that have gone unresolved after months of negotiations.

The strike is expected to continue at least through today and could drag on longer if negotiations scheduled for Thursday fail.

``Just to fill in for 20,000 kids is not easy, but it went well,'' Superintendent Roy Romer said during a midday news conference, where he vowed that students also would get rides home from school.

``We're going to deliver every kid. We're not going to have any kid stuck.''

Special-education students and pupils picked up from nonschool sites were given first priority for relief transportation, with high school students enduring the longest waits.

``Whoever fit in the bus went to school and everybody else waited there until the bus came back. Some people just left or went home,'' said Mercedes Aguilar, 16, of Los Angeles, as she waited for a bus to take her back home from Granada Hills High.

Granada Hills High student Patricia Cruz, 16, said she missed track and field practice because no one could pick her up and take her home in downtown Los Angeles if she missed the bus after school.

``I need to work out for my meets but there's really nothing I can do about it right now,'' Cruz said.

The school district directly employs 1,130 bus drivers, but also contracts with private firms. Laidlaw serves more than 20,000 students on some 700 routes a day.

Drivers, represented by officials of Teamsters Local 572, have been in negotiations with Laidlaw for more than seven months. The drivers are seeking 5 percent pay increases for each of the next three years, along with better health and retirement benefits.

Romer said the district must remain neutral as the two parties negotiate a contract.

``I can only urge them, as I have, to settle,'' Romer said.

Striking drivers said they earn $8.50 to $12 an hour, while district officials said their drivers earn $12.61 to $20.81 for smaller buses and between $13.34 and $21.99 for bigger buses. Health and other benefits are extra.

``Nobody wants to go on strike, but at the same time we have to support our families,'' said Debra Mayhew, a Laidlaw driver picketing in front of the Canoga Park bus yard. The Van Nuys resident has a daughter, who attends special-education classes at Patrick Henry Middle School in Granada Hills.

``We do the same job Los Angeles Unified drivers do but get paid less ... and on substandard buses with no air conditioning.''

Drivers said the proposed wage increase is only 1.8 percent, medical premiums would be more costly and pension benefits would be virtually eliminated.

``They are taking away more than they are willing to give us,'' said Laidlaw driver Sylvia Davila of North Hollywood.

Jim Ferraro, Laidlaw area vice president, said negotiators have been working with a federal mediator.

But as talks broke down in recent weeks, speculation mounted that a strike was imminent.

``(Tuesday's) action was taken with no official notice to Laidlaw or to L.A. Unified and now these children are getting to school late, if at all. It's just irresponsible and outrageous,'' he said. ``The company feels we've made a generous wage and benefits offer. But it was rejected.''

He said the company is willing to return to the negotiating table with the federal mediator and union officials but has not yet received a response from the union.

WHERE TO CALL

For recorded information on LAUSD bus service, call [phone].

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Photo:

(color) Granada Hills High students wait for school buses to take them home during Tuesday's strike by bus drivers. Drivers represented by the Teamsters union are at odds with Laidlaw Transit Inc. over a contract.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer