Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992 TAG: 9203070052
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: George Kegley
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Ten years ago, "we had good pay," said Earl Boitnott, Roanoke executive board member for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1493. By the time the strike began in March 1990, the bus company had cut mileage payments and other driver benefits, amounting to about $12,000, he said.
Boitnott says he's fortunate because he had started a nursery and landscaping business before the strike started. He's doing well and he's planning to hire a second assistant this year.
Several of the former inter-city drivers pick up occasional charter runs for Abbott Bus Lines but that is seasonal work, slowing in winter.
Joe Wilson of Rocky Mount, retired union official, said Greyhound reduced pensions when he retired last year at 55. He said he had quite a contrast, going from $25,000 a year with Greyhound to $6,000 or $7,000 for charter trips with Abbott.
Wilson and Ralph Spangler, another former Greyhound man, left for New York on a charter trip Thursday.
Although the strike hasn't officially ended, the ATU last week told its members they can return to work without fear of being labeled scabs. But union men in Roanoke say they are not interested in returning to Greyhound and the company hasn't offered them jobs.
Elizabeth Dunn, a spokeswoman for Greyhound at its Dallas headquarters, said the union proposed, "Let's talk" and the company replied, "Sure." But no date has been set for negotiating the issue of taking the drivers back.
After a sometimes bitter two-year strike, including a turn in and out of bankruptcy, Greyhound is operating with about 3,400 drivers nationally, Dunn said. That includes about 600 "crossovers," who crossed the picket lines to resume driving.
More than 47,000 people last year applied for bus driving jobs, according to Dunn, a sharp reminder of unemployment levels and recession.
But as significant as the job's they left, ATU members said, are the many unfair labor practice charges by the union that have not yet been heard by the National Labor Relations Board. Union members are convinced that they have a good case, one that will bring them heavy back pay if they win. One driver said the settlement could be for more than the company is worth.
Dunn predicted that hearing the charges will take another five years. Wilson said the union is "in for a long, hard fight."
Roanoke union members haven't given up.
Joe Gore, a driver turned rental station employer in Vinton, said, "We don't have nothing to go back to" if jobs were offered at the bus company. Before the strike, drivers operated in 62 slots out of Roanoke, on trips to Washington, Knoxville and Richmond. Because none of the bus runs now originates in Roanoke, "we would have to go to Richmond or Washington at our own expense" to start driving, he said.
Gore said he's convinced that the Dallas-based bus company forced the drivers to strike because "they wanted to get rid of the union."
He said he's "not doing that well" financially, but he does not have the expense of travel. If he had to go to Richmond or Washington to start work, Gore said, he would have the additional expense of renting an apartment or a room there.
Fred Miles, an ex-Greyhound driver from Botetourt County, said he would return to work for the company only if the strike were "completely settled."
Regular picketing was conducted in Roanoke until late summer. By that time, "most everybody was back at work and they didn't have time. People have to get on with their lives," Miles said. They returned to their picket line outside the bus terminal on Salem Avenue at Christmas and New Year's holidays.
The drivers had a choice to strike "and not many regret it. We can only be pushed so far and we stood," Miles said.
The drivers probably had "too much bitterness and hostility" from the strike to go back to Greyhound, he said.
Meanwhile, 15 buses run through Roanoke daily, six headed north to Washington, six going southwest to Knoxville and three over to Richmond. Passenger volume "is about like it used to be," said a clerk at the downtown terminal. Dunn said Greyhound, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October, made money in November and December.
But the former drivers say the buses don't appear to have many riders.
George Kegley is business editor of the Roanoke Times & World-News. He covers labor, economic development, regional industry, utilities and commercial real estate.
by CNB