Another 50 to 60 longshoremen also failed to show up for work yesterday, causing further delays.

Striking members of the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific set up picket lines yesterday morning after contract talks broke off Wednesday with the two companies, which are owned by Saltchuk Resources, Inc., of Seattle.

Both sides agreed to meet with a federal mediator, but no date has been set. Gov. Linda Lingle's chief of staff, Bob Awana, also planned to meet with both sides to discuss a solution, said Lingle spokesman Russell Pang.

The state's two major airlines — Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines — were swamped with calls yesterday and today as worried businesses sought shipping alternatives.

"The phone has been ringing off the hook," said Aloha spokesman Stu Glauberman. "But our freight cargo operation has been pretty much booked for the Fourth of July weekend, so we've been doing as much as we can. We hope to pick up some business Sunday and Monday."

Aloha yesterday still flew three times as much cargo than normal, Glauberman said. More than 88,000 pounds of cargo was flown out of Hilo and more than 38,000 pounds out of Lihu'e.

"We picked up a lot of papayas in Hilo," he said.

Each night, Aloha switches from passengers to cargo and flies 12 to 15 flights among the Neighbor Islands.

Hawaiian handles cargo, space permitting, during its daytime-only flights, a spokesman said. Since the strike began, Hawaiian has doubled its normal cargo business. By 10 a.m. today, Hawaiian shipped out 65,000 pounds from Honolulu to the Neighbor Islands.

For produce manufacturers and distributors, however, switching from barges to air cargo doesn't offer a long-term solution because of the limits of space and costs that are five-and-a-half to six times higher, said Mark Teruya, president of Armstrong Produce Ltd., Hawai'i's largest produce distributor.

Armstrong was flying in a shipment of papayas from Hilo this morning and tomorrow that had been stranded by the strike, Teruya said. But Armstrong's Maui operation couldn't get space on an Aloha flight last night for seven pallets of produce. Armstrong officials were trying to rebook a flight for tonight.

"Our Neighbor Island growers are concerned about getting fruit over here," Teruya said.

One farmer on Molokai, where barge service has been indefinitely discontinued because of the strike, decided against shipping his goods to O'ahu by air freight because of the cost, Teruya said.

"He'll probably have to store the product on Molokai or he might have to dump it," Teruya said. "You can't keep produce forever. It doesn't' have that much of a shelf life."

State transportation officials were concerned about cruise ships that are not equipped with their own maneuvering thrusters, said spokesman Scott Ishikawa.

Young Brothers and Hawaiian Tug & Barge are assigned to handle docking chores for cruise ships at Neighbor Island ports, he said, and it would be up to the cruise lines to decide to hire other tugs for that.

Contract talks broke down two hours before the expiration of the old contract over accumulated time off, in which tugboat crews build up paid leave every time they set out to sea. Union negotiators wanted to double the time off their members earn. Company officials were willing to raise the amount by only half.

The strike immediately delayed a barge headed for Lana'i, kept new cargo from coming into Young Brothers docks and left goods sitting idle as harried managers drove forklifts and took over other duties for absent members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Young Brothers has the only Public Utilities Commission license to provide regularly scheduled barge service to all of the Hawaiian Islands and needs to fulfill its PUC obligations, said Bill Chung, the companies' vice president of personnel and industrial relations and a member of the management negotiating committee. So Young Brothers will have to hire one or more of its competitors to keep up Neighbor Island barge service, Chung said.

The company's motto is "Lifeline of the Hawaiian Islands" and yesterday's start of the strike immediately caused problems on every island.

Young Brothers and Hawaiian Tug & Barge immediately canceled three barge trips — to Maui, the Big Island and Kaua'i.

There was no sign that either side was willing to compromise on the issue of accumulated time off. They also disputed many of the key facts.

Crew members earn four hours of accumulated time off for every day at sea, Chung said. Union negotiators wanted to increase the amount to eight hours, Chung said. Company negotiators offered six hours of accumulated time off, Chung said.

Jonathon Lono Kane, regional director of the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific, said union negotiators proposed increasing the amount of accumulated time off by one hour for every year of a new four-year contract for a total of four hours. Company negotiators instead offered five hours for the first year and six hours in either the second or third years, Kane said. Chung said the talks broke off when union members said they would agree to six hours but would also want an increase in pay.

Kane said union officials never asked for a pay raise. Instead, Kane said, union negotiators made a presentation and showed that increasing accumulated time off would have little effect on the company's finances.

"We showed them how they could afford it," Kane said. "When they came back with their proposal, they agreed that they could afford our proposal, but they weren't going to give it to us. They said they had a mandate from somebody above them that this is all we're going to get. That's what broke off negotiations."

Kenneth Sanders, a member of the union negotiating committee, said the company also wanted to reduce the number of tug boat crew members from six to five in exchange for increasing accumulated time off.

"We've been running ragged with six guys and they want to take away another person?" Sanders said. "This just pushed us over the edge. We give 200 percent to these people no matter what. Despite bad conditions, we keep 'em going. For six hours of (accumulated time off) we would have to lose one man out of a six-man crew. I would never sell out another union member just to get a dollar. You don't give up your people."

Tugboat crew members carry an average of 97.5 days of accumulated time off and can roll over time from year to year, Chung said. The union's request for more accumulated time off was "unreasonable and more than the company was willing to agree to," Chung said.

Tugboat crews work various shifts, but average about 10 hours a day five days a week, Chung said. Typical union employees earn between $67,000 to $70,000 per year, he said. Some can make as much as $100,000 a year for only eight months of work, he said.

Kane disagreed.

Union members average $60,000 a year, including overtime and accumulated time off, Kane said.

"The guy that made $100,000, he worked 300 days," Kane said. "Does that equal eight months? I don't think so. These guys average in excess of 3,000 hours per year. Their average pay rate is $17.65 per hour.

"Our members are out at sea on the tugboats for up to three days straight and are on duty 24 hours a day. Eight hours later, they load and go out again. The accumulated time off ratio is an issue of health and safety, and this is the message we tried unsuccessfully to convey to management."

Out of 360 to 370 employees, an estimated 60 are covered by collective bargaining agreements, Chung said.

With Young Brothers and Hawaiian Tug & Barge work creeping along slowly or idled yesterday on Piers 20, 24 and 40, Chung said company officials may consider hiring new workers to replace those on strike. But Chung acknowledged that it will be difficult to find qualified employees who have all of the required Coast Guard licenses.

Some striking tug boat crew members today said they are willing to walk their picket lines for weeks or months, if necessary.

Trey Lacy, chief mate on the Moana Holo, said "personally I'm fine. I've got savings and a little bit in checking. Financially I'm very stable. Life on a tugboat, you don't have a lot of entertainment expenses. I'm prepared if this thing lasts a week, a month or two months."

Sanders, who is also chief engineer of the Hoku Loa, said he could pay his mortgage for perhaps another six months.

"I started saving up three years ago when we took the last contract," he said.

The two companies operate a fleet of 13 tugs and 10 barges. Hawaiian Tug & Barge provides 45 percent of the so-called "ship assist" work for Honolulu Harbor and 100 percent of the Neighbor Island ship assist work.

The SS Great Land, owned and operated by Matson Navigation Co., was scheduled to berth yesterday morning at Kahului Harbor with a load of cars but could not because of the strike, said Matson spokesman Jeff Hull. It was able to berth later in the day with the help of a Sause Brothers tug, which regularly tows Matson-owned barges, Hull said.

Because the car-and-truck-laden container ships require tug assistance in harbors, Matson will have to figure out what to do during the strike.

The strike meant more activity immediately for Sause Brothers, which was bombarded by "tons of calls from people who are trying to move their stuff to the outer islands," said Doug Won, the company's vice president and area manager.

But, Won said, "There is nobody who could pick up the slack."

Young Brothers has "a PUC license and have all this equipment," Won said. "I only have one barge here that could do it, and it is already under contract to someone else. And I don't have a PUC license."