OTS president urges bus workers to 'end this strike'
| • | City targets more free rides for seniors |
| • | Drive Time: Union for bus riders may be ticket to getting voices heard |
| • | Getting around without TheBus: Information you can use |
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
More than 1,300 O'ahu Transit Service employees begin their fourth week on the picket line today, with no new talks scheduled between the operators of TheBus and the Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, which represents its workers.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Management and union leadership have not met since negotiations broke off Wednesday night.
Officers work at South and King streets to prevent a blocked intersection, giving some drivers a $77 ticket.
Over the weekend, bus company employees received a letter at home from OTS president Jim Cowen outlining the company's position as well as that of the union.
"It's time to get back to work," Cowen wrote, noting that the company has offered a 90-day "cooling-off period" during which the employees would go back to work while negotiations continued. "Let's end this strike."
Since the strike began Aug. 26, the key hangup has been over wages and pension benefits. The company is proposing a three-year contract with no increases in wages or pension benefits the first and second years, and an opportunity for the union to negotiate later for more wages and benefits in the third year.
The union would agree to no wages or pension increases in the first year, but it seeks a 50-cent hourly increase in both categories in the second and third years. Teamsters officials insist they won't require the raises if the city does not provide money for them.
Teamsters officials could not be reached to comment on Cowen's letter.
Meanwhile, people like Bob Bourke made do as best they could. Bourke used to catch the bus from Kailua to his job at a downtown environmental engineering firm. Since the strike began, he has driven to work, or waited at bus stops, hoping that someone would see him and pick him up, or caught rides with friends.
Bourke, who said he supports the bus drivers, feels the strike will be settled within a week.
"I think they'll probably settle it as soon as they've saved enough money in lost salaries in order to pay them their wage for the rest of the year," he said.
He favors a gas tax increase to get more money for the bus system.
"If I take my car from my home to my office, it takes an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half during rush hour. If I drive my car when the bus is operational, it usually takes about 45 minutes. If the bus system were running, it would save me and my car about 45 minutes a day," Bourke said.
"The savings is to the people who drive their cars, not the people who are actually on the bus. So the price for the benefit of improved transportation should be borne by those who have the most gain from the system, and those are the people who are the car drivers."
The City Council is pushing through a fare increase designed to raise $6.8 million in additional revenues, largely to restore service and ensure no layoffs or cuts in benefits.
The union has been running television advertisements chastising Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris for paying for nonessential programs while offering no new money for bus workers.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
