Bus workers union offers new proposal
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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer
The union representing more than 1,300 striking bus workers offered a new contract proposal to O'ahu Transit Services last night, but both sides were mum on details, and it did not appear that much progress had been made.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Negotiations ended at about 11:30 p.m.
About 300 idled buses at O'ahu Transit Service's Kalihi facility are undergoing regular checkups during the strike and would be ready to run if a settlement is reached.
OTS chief negotiator Perry Confalone said late last night that the company will analyze the union proposal in detail and give a response today.
"We can't accept what they've given us tonight," Confalone said, but he added that "there may be some room to compromise."
Wage and pension benefit increases remain major concerns for the union. Asked if OTS might budge from its position that there is no money for raises, Confalone said, "I don't see that possibility."
He said there might be some wiggle room in other areas.
But Mel Kahele, Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 president, did not sound hopeful.
"The cutbacks and layoffs are still on the bargaining table," Kahele said. He urged OTS President Jim Cowen to take a direct role in the negotiations. "We want him to attend these negotiating sessions so we can resolve this strike," Kahele said.
He declined to offer details on the latest union proposal or take questions from reporters.
It was not known when negotiations would resume.
Those hoping to see some sign that the 14-day-old strike might be resolved got mixed signals earlier yesterday at Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall where officials with OTS, which operates TheBus, and the union gathered at the bargaining table for the first time since Thursday.
From the time the two sides arrived shortly after 2 p.m. until they took a dinner break at 5:15 p.m., they did not formally meet face to face. Instead, federal mediator Carol Catanzariti walked between rooms carrying piles of paper.
But for about half an hour yesterday, for the first time ever, Kahele, Confalone, Catanzariti and a Kahele aide met informally in a side room.
Both sides walked in saying they were hopeful that they would be able to hash out their differences, but also said they were going into the talks not moving from their positions over the major stumbling points — wages and pension benefits.
The union is agreeing to forgo increases in wages and benefits in the first year of a proposed three-year contract but wants 50-cent wage increases in each of the second and third years, and also 50-cent increases in contributions to a pension program in the second and third years.
The company said the union plan would cost more than $8 million annually at the end of the third year and has insisted there is no money for wage and benefit increases.
Last week, OTS proposed two packages.
The first proposal calls for an 18-month contract with no pay raises. The second calls for a three-year contract that freeze wages for two years and allows negotiations on two topics of the union's choice to be reopened in the third year, presumably wages and pension benefits.
Staff writer Mike Leidemann contributed to this report. Reach Gordon Pang at 525-8070 or gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.
