Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004061041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Members of Congress fly in airplanes - they don't ride buses. These passengers tend to be poor folks who are not active politically," said Rep. Tom Downey, D-N.Y.
Democrats who sometimes take the lead on labor issues also said President Bush's hands-off approach to such disputes - he vetoed a union-backed plan to help settle the Eastern Airlines strike - has inhibited lawmakers from jumping into the fray.
Congress historically has sat on the sidelines for months before injecting itself in labor-management disputes, and neither Greyhound nor striking drivers who walked out five weeks ago have asked Congress to intervene.
Still, there has been no flurry of floor speeches on the strike, which has been marked by shootings and bomb threats and has choked transportation in small communities around the country. One House member's call for hearings has gone unheeded.
Several lawmakers have written to Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole and Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner asking for help. Last year, Mrs. Dole intervened in the Pittston coal strike by appointing a "supermediator" who helped reach a settlement for Appalachian miners.
Mrs. Dole believes her involvement in the Greyhound walkout would be premature because federal mediators are working on the matter, said spokeswoman Dale Tate.
Greyhound's 6,300 drivers and about 3,000 of its office and maintenance workers walked out March 2 over wages and job security. The company, which operates the only nationwide bus system, has been running on a reduced schedule since then, using replacements and union members who cross picket lines.
Officials of both Greyhound and the striking Amalgamated Transit Union say Congress might be paying closer attention if middle- or high-income Americans used buses.
"If this were happening to airplanes, it would be in every politician's speech, in every headline," said Greyhound Chairman Fred G. Currey.
Added union spokesman Jeffrey Nelson: "These people aren't spending their spare time writing letters to the editor; they're not making long-distance phone calls to Congress demanding action."
Nelson said that although the strike isn't on the top of Congress' agenda, lawmakers helped persuade the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Bernard E. DeLury, to get involved.
"This is the best we can expect from the government at this point," Nelson said, adding that "arm-waving and standing on desktops" wouldn't accomplish a resumption of talks. The company has refused to return to the bargaining table until a week goes by without any acts of violence.
Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., has called for the House Public Works and Transportation Committee to hold hearings on the strike, but without success.
"There should be a higher level of consciousness about it," Rahall complained. Hearings would "put pressure on both sides to sit down and engage in collective bargaining and work toward an agreement ... I think we should discuss overall safety concerns and say, `Hey, we are in an emergency here."'
Downey said the violent nature of the strike also has kept lawmakers quiet. Along with sniper attacks, bomb threats and brick-throwing incidents, one striker was crushed to death by a bus driven by a replacement driver. On Wednesday night in Boston, a suspicious fire destroyed a bus, and later its doors were found to have been welded shut.
Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., blamed Congress' reluctance on the tone Bush set with his Eastern veto. An override attempt in the House last month failed.
"I would be willing to have Congress enter tomorrow, but our entry would only create thunder" and accomplish nothing, given the administration's stand, Williams said.
"As with Eastern, the delay by the White House and the Labor Department benefits management and not the workers. Workers are going bankrupt daily, unions are being broken and management" seems to be surviving, Williams said.
by CNB