For four weeks, thousands of school bus drivers and chaperones have been on strike to stop the city from signing new bus contracts without seniority protections.

But on Tuesday, the city moved one step closer to doing just that. Officials publicly read bids from 65 different school bus companies, competing for the very work that the strikers had hoped to prevent.

“We had a competitive process for the first time in 33 years, so that’s what we’ve been striving for,” said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.

The contracts represent more than 1,100 of the city’s 7,700 school bus routes. It was divided into 32 jobs, based on the type of school buses needed and the geographic area.

Some of the 65 companies bid on every job. Others bid on just one or two.

It’s required that the city reads every offer out loud, as David Ross of the Department of Education explained, “so that everyone hears at the same time what the different companies have bid.”

It took more than six hours Tuesday.

(Source: NY1)