Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 4, 1990 TAG: 9003042103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The striker in Redding, Calif., was crushed against a wall as a temporary driver hired for the walkout was trying to maneuver his bus around a pickup truck driven by another striker, witnesses said. Police questioned the driver but didn't arrest him.
Elsewhere, there were scattered confrontations between strikers and replacement drivers in the walkout that stranded many travelers and left hundreds of small communities without public intercity transportation.
The Amalgamated Council of Greyhound Local Unions, which represents more than 9,000 employees including all 6,300 drivers and most maintenance and office workers, went on strike Friday after negotiators in Scottsdale, Ariz., failed to reach agreement on pay. No talks were scheduled.
Greyhound Chairman Fred Currey said Saturday that the company was operating 25 percent of its routes and would continue increasing operations each day. He said an additional 700 union-covered employees had crossed picket lines since noon Friday, pushing the number of union members on the job to 1,800. Of that number, however, only about 350 were drivers. The company also has 700 new hires.
Union spokesman Jeffrey Nelson disputed Curry's figures, saying union officials believed just 10 percent of routes were in operation.
In the Redding death, police said the replacement driver continued on the route after the bus hit the striker. He later flagged down a Highway Patrol officer and was taken in for questioning, then released without being charged, said police Officer Steve Fiddler. The officer was unable to explain why the driver stopped.
"I cannot accurately say if it was intentional or if it was just an unfortunate incident," police investigator Ole Olson said of the death.
Initial reports to Greyhound indicated the driver didn't realize he hit the picket, said company spokesman George Gravley in Dallas.
The victim was Robert Waterhouse, 59, of Redding, 30-year veteran driver planning to retire this year.
The replacement driver, Theodore Graham, of Portland, Ore., had worked for two trucking companies and had a safe driving record with both of them, according to his application to Greyhound, Gravley said.
Currey said the company was seeking several court orders against picket line violence.
In Chicago, where gunshots were fired at a bus and a terminal the first night of the strike, a judge issued an order Saturday against picket line violence. Two passengers were slightly injured by flying glass.
In Philadelphia, three men threw rocks at a bus late Friday, breaking windows and bruising a passenger. Police said the rocks were thrown after the bus, carrying 15 passengers from Washington, stopped about two blocks from Philadelphia's downtown bus terminal because several women jumped in front of it. Two men were arrested.
In Toledo, Ohio, a picket was hit by a bus Saturday, but the striker wasn't seriously injured and the driver wasn't charged, police said.
During the bus line's last strike, in 1983, a striking Greyhound driver was killed near Zanesville, Ohio, when he was run over while standing in front of a bus being used to train replacement drivers.
In an Associated Press interview Saturday, Currey said the company had put away enough money to weather a strike. Greyhound has so many applications for replacement drivers that the company could resume service on all its routes by the end of March if the strike last that long, he said.
In the failed negotiations, the company wanted some pay increases contingent on increased ridership, safety records and productivity factors. The union refuses to accept the contingencies.
Greyhound drivers, who according to the company earned an average of $24,743 last year, took a 22 percent pay cut three years ago in negotiations before a leveraged buyout of the company.
by CNB