Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003032933
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"This company is damn well hell-bent on breaking this union," said Joe Wilson, an executive board member of the local Amalgamated Transit Union No. 1493. "You can't even make a decent wage. We're going to do whatever it takes, by God, just like the coal miners. If it means going to jail, so be it."
The confrontation with the bus took place shortly after 9 p.m., prompting city police to ask the picketing bus drivers to move.
"The last thing we want to do is arrest anybody," said Sgt. W.K. West, a Roanoke Police supervisor on the evening shift. "We want to see things go peacefully. We are trying to get both sides to do things lawfully."
Police stayed on the scene until after 10 p.m., a time the union says it plans to daily disband its picket line if no other buses are scheduled to arrive. They planned to return at 4 a.m.
"If the buses are coming in, we'll have a picket line," Wilson said.
Drivers along the picket line complained that unlicensed supervisors were meeting replacement or non-striking drivers near the terminal and driving the buses the rest of the way.
Wilson said striking drivers wanted to encourage the replacement drivers not to cross the picket line.
"Once you cross the picket line, that's it," he said.
He contends Greyhound has offered non-striking bus drivers increased seniority if they cross union lines.
Joe Payne, a replacement driver from Fayetteville, N.C., said he received no guarantees.
"I'm a bus driver. I like to drive a bus. I can just make some money to make my house payment."
Using replacement drivers hired by Manpower Inc., the company scheduled three buses out of Roanoke on Friday, the first day of the strike.
Four or five people were sitting in the terminal in late afternoon waiting for a bus scheduled to leave five hours later, Wilson said.
Bob Harman, district manager for the bus company, said two runs are expected to go to Washington, D.C., and to Knoxville, Tenn., today and one is to go to Norfolk on a limited strike schedule. Under the normal schedule, six round-trip runs operate from Washington through Roanoke to Knoxville, and two go to Norfolk each day.
Both Harman and Wilson said they expect no problems during a strike here. "We never have had trouble here," Harman said.
The last Greyhound strike lasted 47 days in 1983. The ATU approved a new contract that cut their pay about 20 percent in 1986.
writer George Kegley contributed information to this story.
by CNB