Drivers say life on picket line not easy

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

Marc Behic can feel the stress of O'ahu's striking bus drivers. In fact, he can grab it and pull it right out of their muscles.

Thirty-year veteran driver Russell Tyler gets a foot massage from fellow driver Marc Behic after walking the picket line in front of the Pearl City Bus Yard while other drivers maintain the picket in the background. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I'm trying to get out all their stress, physical and psychological," Behic said as he massaged the foot of a fellow striker using a combination of lomi lomi and shiatsu techniques that he learned from his grandmother long before he became a bus driver 15 years ago.

Drivers and other Teamsters union members walking a picket line outside the OTS maintenance facility in Manana yesterday said that they have experienced a range of emotions since the strike began Aug. 26.

Several said they know public sentiment is turning against them, but they are determined to stay out long enough to win a contract that includes no cutbacks and some pay raise.

"This is my first experience like this. and I hope it's my last," said Gladys Wai, who started driving a city bus in 1973, two years after Honolulu's last mass transit strike, and has been working as a strike captain up to 12 hours a day since last week.

"I miss seeing my grandchildren, and my neighbors tell me I look like hell, but I just tell everybody that we've got to stay strong," Wai said.

Leaders on the picket line yesterday agreed to talk about the daily ups and downs they've encountered since the strike began but would not comment about ongoing negotiations.

"Just being a driver is stressful enough," said Behic, who normally handles the CityExpress! bus between Waikiki and Kalihi. Crowded buses, Honolulu's traffic, tons of regulations and sometimes rude passengers all contribute to a day's frustration.

Most drivers have some form of stress outlet when the day is done, including weightlifting, paddling, tai chi, painting, poetry or one of the foot messages Behic offers as a personal courtesy, said Behic, who studied psychology at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

"If you don't do something, you're going to have problems," he said.

Wai and others said they are disappointed by the sometimes ugly comments about the strike they hear on talk radio and from passing motorists.

"The public isn't getting the full story," Wai said. "We're doing this to protect the bus service and to protect our future. We know we're affecting the public, but we've got to sacrifice for our families, too."

Andrew Paguyo went on strike just eight months after joining OTS as a driver and two months after getting married, but he said he has no complaints.

"It's been an experience, and I'm taking it in stride," he said.

So is his wife, Heather, a public school teacher who lived through a strike of her own two years ago.

"She knows how it is, so she's been very understanding and supportive," Paguyo said.

"No strike is easy, and some people may be getting frustrated, but we try to keep them updated all the time, and our morale is high," said Cedric Cartajena, who normally drives the No. 52 Circle Island route but now serves on the union's 19-member negotiating committee.

"Disappointment. That about sums everything up," Cartajena said about the negotiations so far. "We gave them everything to be No. 1 in the nation, and this is how they treat us."

David Aviles, a strike captain in Manana, said the workers take pride in apparently helping to avert the city's planned cutbacks in bus service in the days leading up to the strike.

"We feel good about that, and it hurts that people don't appreciate it," Aviles said. "But, absolutely, they've got a right to say what they want about us."

The strike has given Aviles, who usually drives in the Pearl City area, more time to spend with his daughter Davlyn, 13, and son Sean, 9, and to work in his garden.

The strikers spend at least three hours a day on the picket lines, which are kept up 24 hours a day at the OTS sites in Manana and Kalihi.

Under a broiling Pearl City sun yesterday, volunteers passed out big straw hats and flavored ice and headed frequently to several coolers filled with bottled water.

"We try to keep our humor up," said Aviles, pointing to a fellow striker who did one circuit of the blocked driveway while walking on his hands. "I don't think anybody ever expects to actually go on strike, but after the first day, we've all been here to support on another."

The strike has provided an opportunity for OTS employees, already a tight group, to get to know everyone better, several drivers said.

"We gather around and talk story and seem to bond more now," Paguyo said. "What worries me are some of the other employees who just bought a house or have kids to put through college."

Although drivers said they haven't been hard hit economically yet by the strike, they know they will be if it drags on. The first payments of $200 a week in strike benefits from the union are due to arrive next week, drivers said.

"I love this company and I love my job, but right now we've got to hang in there," Wai said. "It hasn't been a hardship for me yet, but I pray every day that this will come to a stop."

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5460.