Starting on October 9 employees of MV transportation, the company which contracts bus service to Santa Clarita, went on strike. Members of the community state that public transportation is necessary to transport them to work and school. With the city’s public transit workers on strike, many people in the city may be forced to change their schedules to accommodate the effects of the strike. 

Reacting quickly a day after the strike took effect, the city acquired an emergency contract with transit systems to provide temporary transportation in the city until the strike resolves. Large, all-white buses can be seen all throughout the city replacing the city’s own buses for the time being. Drivers often notice the replacement white vehicles, serving as a reminder about the strike even for those with their own transportation. 

While many citizens may be finding themselves displaced by the bus drivers strike it is important to know that the city of Santa Clarita is not a part of the labor disputes. Rather, the current strike is caused by issues between employees of MV transportation, the company responsible for contracting bus services within Santa Clarita. 

“We [employees] were in negotiations for over a year with MV, so we didn’t take a strike lightly at all,” said Lourdes Garcia, the President of Local 572, Santa Clarita’s radio station. 

The current strike has been built upon a year’s worth of tensions and at the moment there seems to be no end in sight.