Bus contract talks break off

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Negotiations between the union that represents 1,300 city bus workers and their employer broke off yesterday afternoon with no progress made.

Leaders of the O'ahu Transit Services and Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 met for the first time in almost two weeks in an effort to avoid a strike set for Aug. 26. But after negotiating for a little more than two hours yesterday, both sides left frustrated and accused each other of not bargaining in good faith.

OTS negotiator Perry Confalone said the company had streamlined its latest contract proposals to meet the union's demand for no layoffs. But Confalone said the union wanted a guarantee of no layoffs during the term of the three-year deal, as well as a commitment that there would be no reduction in bus service.

Confalone said the company, which is contracted by the city to operate the bus system, does not have the authority to commit to no cuts in service. That, he said, is up to the city administration.

"We can't give specific guarantees that there will never be a layoff during the term of the contract because we can't forecast what's going to happen next year in terms of the budget," he said.

Confalone said that with no talks scheduled until the day before the strike, the union appears to be using the nearly 240,000 daily bus riders as "pawns."

"We feel that that is irresponsible. ...they're treating people who depend upon the service as pawns, instead of people," Confalone said. "We're willing to negotiate from here until the deadline, but they're not."

Union president Mel Kahele blamed OTS for taking a "Band Aid" approach to negotiations. He said OTS had indicated in a letter that there would be no service cuts or layoffs but refused to provide a time frame.

"The whole (negotiating) committee is discouraged," Kahele said. "With the letter that was faxed to us stating that the service would be restored and there would be no layoffs, we went to the bargaining table optimistic but then finding out they would not give us any kind of indication of a time frame."

The city administration has said it will proceed with plans to cut bus service Aug. 24 that would result in layoffs of as many as 40 full-time workers. The City Council is scheduled to meet Aug. 25 to discuss a measure to raise bus fares in an effort to avoid the service reduction.