Shoes, skates savvy carry commuters
By Dan Nakaso and Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writers
Day One of a citywide bus strike saw harried bus riders walking, in-line skating and cobbling together transportation for the beginning of what could be a long, emotional strike.
BUSINESSHundreds of weary, angry members of the Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers 996 took to the picket lines for the first time since 1971, adding up to a rough morning commute for people like Bob Bourke, a regular bus rider from Kailua.
He got a ride from a neighbor to Kalihi and was running more than 30 minutes late to his job at a downtown environmental engineering firm. He had planned to hitchhike the rest of the way to work when he came upon a city shuttle van.
"I'm a little hot and sweaty," Bourke said. "I'm going to have to change my shirt at work."
A heavier-than-normal morning commute ended smoothly, but not long afterward some began worrying about other kinds of effects.
"We're bracing ourselves," said Wally Soares, co-owner of Island Skill Gathering, which sells products and provides services to the elderly and disabled, many of whom need TheBus. "It will definitely affect us."
The usually crowded sidewalks of Chinatown were open yesterday, but shops had few customers. Store owners stood in doorways hoping for the usual foot-traffic that didn't materialize.
Most of Tony Liang's King Mart customers ride TheBus, he said. And business had fallen 60 percent to 70 percent.
By midday, city officials were tweaking the shuttle van service for today and added more free trips. They pledged to continue the vans throughout the strike.
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| A man rides a bike through the empty bus lanes of Hotel Street.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser |
But finding city employees to drive the vans takes them away from their regular duties, said Ben Lee, the city's managing director.
Some 350 people made reservations with the shuttle vans, but not all of them showed up, Lee said as he drove a route from Kapolei to Chinatown Gateway.
As news of the strike settles in, Lee said, city officials expect the vans to be full today. City officials also contracted 15 school buses for free return trips from Hotel Street starting at 5 p.m. First come, first served.
All of yesterday's activities were the result of more than 1,300 bus workers walking off the job just past midnight yesterday despite a last-ditch bargaining session that lasted nearly 10 hours.
Contract talks between O'ahu Transit Services and the Teamsters broke off with union president Mel Kahele telling OTS negotiator Perry Confalone: "Call when you're ready to take your cutbacks off the table."
Yesterday, hundreds of striking Teamsters gathered at the Middle Street entrance to TheBus yard and dug in for a protracted strike with no talks scheduled.
Chris Boucher, a Teamsters spokesman, said, "I don't think we'll meet this week."
Asked how long the strike might last, OTS spokeswoman Marilyn Dicus said that Kahele "has said three months. We don't have any prediction."
Teamsters have paid for at least another two months of medical benefits, said T.K. Hannemann, chairman of the union's political action committee. They have to be on strike for another week before they can be eligible for weekly benefits equal to 10 times their hourly salary. A worker who earns $11 an hour, Hannemann said, would therefore receive $110 per week.
Union officials are also urging members to apply for state unemployment benefits.
"We would ask again for cooler heads to prevail and for the Teamsters union to reconsider what I believe was an error in judgment in going out on strike," Mayor Jeremy Harris said yesterday.
Meanwhile, city councilmembers focused on crafting a bus fare measure they can agree on.
"We haven't even looked at any money to increase salaries," said Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi. "Whatever comes out of negotiations, if it's agreed to then I guess we'll have to somehow find the money. But we certainly don't know where we'll get it because there is no money."
The council yesterday voted unanimously to advance the city administration's measure to increase bus fares, but made it clear the bus fare structure in the bill needed more work. The measure would generate $6.8 million, which would restore bus service that was cut in June and prevent additional cuts and layoffs, a central issue in the bus dispute.
Council Chairman Gary Okino said the Council is trying to expedite the fare increases.
"If we're doing anything extra, it's trying to move up the adoption date, maybe a week earlier than Sept. 24," he said. "We just want to get this new fare structure done."
U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye told a business group in Hilo yesterday that he intends to meet with union leaders to learn more about the dispute.
"I realize as the press had reported that it's about benefits and pay, but often times it's much more than that, and I'd like to know what it is," said Inouye, D-Hawai'i.
Inouye said he believes Hawai'i gets "just as much if not more" in federal transportation money as most communities, but said he will also look into the depth of federal support for the bus system.
The depth of concern over maneuvering through Honolulu could be measured by the thousands of hits on the the city's Web page about the strike.
More than 750 people have subscribed to receive instant information, said city Department of Transportation Services director Cheryl Soon. And 200 people called the city's hot line (527-5890). The Vanpool Hawaii program has fielded more than 500 calls since 5 a.m. yesterday.
Yesterday, a recorded cheerful voice of a woman on the TheBus' telephone number said:
"Aloha. Thank you for calling TheBus. TheBus is on strike, and no one is available to answer your call. ... We regret the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding."
That left regular bus riders such as Joann Smith wondering how they will get around.
"I have no clue," said Smith, a University of Hawai'i audiology graduate student. She starts an internship program next week that requires her to go to Pearl Harbor and to the Hawai'i School for the Deaf and Blind and has no idea how she'll get there.
Outrigger Hotels & Resorts hired an outside bus company to create a temporary, company-wide, shuttle system. Some 205 Outrigger employees signed up for round-trip rides from nine locations to get into Waikiki, Outrigger spokesman Jim Austin said. He wasn't sure yesterday how many got onboard and paid the $3 round-trip cost. Outrigger is subsidizing the remaining $5 cost.
Advertiser staff writers Deborah Adamson, James Gonser, Kevin Dayton, Rod Ohira and Mary Kaye Ritz contributed to this report.
