Bus strike fails to garner strong public support

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

When public-school teachers struck two years ago, Hawai'i residents were dropping off bottled water and delivering pizza to picket lines.

Striking bus workers acknowledge the horn-honking of passing motorists as they walk the picket line on Middle Street. "Our morale is strong," said Sonny Dudoit, a driver and vice president of the Teamsters. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

As the strike by employees of TheBus wears into the weekend, some pickets are carrying signs asking drivers to honk in support. But if honking from passersby is any measure of the union's public relations image, it's mixed at best.

Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 took more than 1,300 O'ahu Transit Services bus workers on strike Tuesday, crippling a public transportation system that accommodates 240,000 rides a day. In the aftermath, scores of bus riders were left to scramble for ways to get around, concern skyrocketed for the disabled and elderly who depend on public transportation, and commuters had to contend with the prospect of rush-hour gridlock from additional cars on the road.

Pubic sentiment in letters to the editor and calls to O'ahu's morning radio shows indicate some residents blame union leaders, city officials or OTS officials, saying that bus employees are victims. Some are voicing support for the striking workers, arguing that they have a difficult job and have the right to get what they can from a new contract.

But many are writing and calling to suggest that the union be broken or to joke about downtown being more peaceful without the noise. Some have noted that not riding TheBus has improved their fitness level as they've turned to bike riding and walking. And others aren't finding the additional traffic much of a hassle.

"It's nice not having to dodge the buses anymore," said Kalona Rego, a Kapolei resident. "I always feel like they're about to run over me."

To combat the apparent public relations problem, the Teamsters plan to launch an advertising campaign that will include radio and television spots, along with full-page newspaper ads, to promote their position.

Mel Kahele, president of the Teamsters, said bus drivers have been criticized for things they haven't even done, such as picket the Handi-Van, which helps disabled riders get around the city. Before the strike began, the Teamsters told Handi-Van drivers that the union was requesting their support in a "sympathy strike," prompting the OTS to prepare by cutting service.

"We didn't want to be accused by the public of not being compassionate," Kahele said Friday before a crowd of pickets. "Everything we do or they do, we get accused."

Kahele said the union is merely seeking to protect jobs, avoid cuts in bus service and get a 50-cents-an-hour wage increase in the second and third year of the contract.

Bus company managers say the union is being unreasonable and city officials say there is no money for the wage increases.

Many of the public comments have been focused on the average bus driver's salary of $44,000 after five years.

But Lawrence Boyd, labor economist and associate specialist with the Center for Labor Education and Research at UH-West O'ahu, also said that some of the most often-repeated comments about bus-driver wage levels aren't true.

"When people are playing hardball in the negotiations, which appears to be happening here, you have this stuff that starts coming out," Boyd said. "There are the claims that the bus drivers are the highest paid in the U.S. It's not true. This is part of a public relations thing that comes out."

So when people note that bus drivers in San Diego earn $6 less per hour than on O'ahu, they ignore that drivers earn 60-cents more per hour in San Francisco, a city with a similar cost of living, Boyd said. Similarly, when the longshoremen came close to a strike in 1999, the public talked about their $100,000 salaries. Actually, most longshoremen earn around $50,000 a year, Boyd said.

So far, Boyd said the public seems to be riding the fence on the bus strike. "I think there's more sentiment for the bus drivers than I expected," Boyd said. "It's pretty mixed."

At some point, Boyd predicts that public sentiment will turn strongly either against the strikers or the City Council and Mayor Jeremy Harris.

Other unions that have struck recently — the Hawai'i State Teachers Association and the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly in 2001 and the nurses unions this year — have had public support, or have at least avoided public hostility.

Boyd said the public wasn't really affected by the nurses strikes. Hospitals flew in traveling nurses from elsewhere to fill the shifts so that, for the most part, care wasn't affected.

Ira Rohter, assistant professor of political science at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, said that teachers and professors benefitted from their unions negotiating with then-Gov. Ben Cayetano, who took a tough stance against wage increases for teachers, and for the sentimental feeling many people have about their former teachers.

Rohter said he has been surprised that more people don't identify with the bus workers, though.

"I am intrigued with the argument that these people earn more money than other folks do," Rohter said. "It's like crabs trying to get out of the bucket. If someone tries to get out of the bucket and get a little higher, everyone else tries to pull them down. It's a drive to the bottom. Could one argue that earning $45,000 a year in Hawai'i is a wonderfully rich income?"

Striking workers said they've not gotten many honks, but also haven't heard negative comments either.

"Of course we're getting criticized by the public, but we're staying strong," said driver Sonny Dudoit, vice president of the Teamsters. "Our morale is strong."

Ed Akana, a strike captain and a driver for 30 years, said the often-heard comparisons of wages for police, firefighters, teachers and bus drivers is unfair. He noted that most bus drivers work split shifts, with four off-hours sandwiched in their day, which makes their workday long and difficult.

"We are totally different professionally," Akana said. "We're out there in the public by ourselves and we have a major safety responsibility. There are safety concerns. This job reaches out to the public."

Kailua resident and frequent bus rider Linda Shapin has spent the week catching rides to work and home again, sometimes by hitchhiking with signs that read "downtown" or "Kailua." But she remains supportive of bus drivers getting some kind of cost-of-living wage increase.

"I don't compare them to the police or teachers. I think it's a case of the police and the teachers not making enough money, not that the bus drivers making too much money. The bus drivers do a really difficult job," Shapin said.

But she is tired of the strike.

"I hope I wake up one morning and find the whole thing is over," she said. "It's a real drag."

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.