[ OUR OPINION ]
Warning allows time
to avoid a bus strikeFAIR warning comes from the Hawaii Teamsters Union that bus service workers will go on strike Aug. 26 unless an agreement on a contract is reached. Three weeks is far more than the required 72-hour strike notice, which should give the union and the contractor that runs TheBus for the city ample time to work out their differences.
THE ISSUE
The union has set a strike deadline for the day after fall classes begin to gain more leverage in its negotiations.
Neither should hold riders and the entire city hostage in their dispute. A strike could paralyze traffic in Honolulu, hurting not only people who depend on public transportation, but motorists, employers, businesses and tourists.
The strike deadline is set for the day after many public and private schools and the University of Hawaii begin fall classes. The union contends that its scheduling will generously "allow people to get to school on the first day," but the timing will be disruptive nonetheless.
The strategy is clearly designed to place substantial pressure on contractor Oahu Transit Services and the city administration, which cut the bus system's funding by $4.2 million because of budget shortfalls.
Riders have been bearing the effects of the cuts, paying 25 cents more in the fare for a single trip and a $3 increase for monthly passes. Service on some routes has been trimmed and passengers must now wait longer for buses to arrive.
Further reductions in service hours are scheduled to start this month, which the union anticipates will mean a loss of up to 40 jobs. OTS has proposed early retirements and a shorter work week for junior employees as ways to avoid layoffs, but the union is unwilling to accept that plan. Other issues stalling an agreement include a freeze in pay and pension benefits and a reduction in what the company pays for medical insurance. Workers at present earn an average of between $15 and $21 an hour with OTS paying 100 percent of the cost for health insurance coverage.
The union, which represents about 1,300 employees, says OTS should go back to the city and ask for more money. The problem is the city hasn't any more. In fact, to make up for revenue shortages, the city is considering another fare increase, higher fares for peak-hour rides and other options to service cuts.
Mayor Harris says the city has prepared contingency plans should there be a strike. At the same time, he is hoping that "cool heads prevail" and a settlement can be reached. The 240,000 people who ride the bus daily would probably agree.
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N. Korea talks
may bring end
to crisisNORTH Korea's dropping of its demand for bilateral talks with the United States about its nuclear weapons program is a major breakthrough in the attempt to avert war on the peninsula. The Bush administration can bring the crisis to an end by agreeing to a nonaggression pact and, with other nations, providing humanitarian aid in return for North Korea shutting down its nuclear plants.
THE ISSUE
North Korea and the United States have agreed to multiparty talks about the North's development of nuclear weapons.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's agreement to six-way talks comes two weeks after a letter by President Hu Jintao of China proposing a multilateral meeting was delivered to Kim. Participants in the meeting, which is expected to be held in Beijing late this month or in early September, include North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
The structure of the talks remains somewhat vague. China's suggestion was that the United States and North Korea meet with each other on the sidelines of the multilateral meeting. A North Korean spokesman described the talks as bilateral within the framework of the six-party talks. Scott McClellan, the White House's chief spokesman, described them as six-party talks, with "the opportunity during these meetings for North Korea or any other party to talk directly to another party."
A congressional delegation that visited North Korea in June came away with the understanding that North Korea would renounce its nuclear weapons and research programs in return for the five other nations' agreement to promote investment, economic growth, trade and humanitarian aid in the North. President Bush has called such a proposal blackmail, but that sort of agreement may be the most sensible and benevolent way of dealing with the problem.
Some hard-liners in the White House reportedly expect the talks to fail and see them as providing a stronger reason for increasing economical, political and perhaps military pressure on the North, aimed at causing its collapse. Ironically, the presence of other nations -- whose participation in the talks was demanded by the U.S. -- could bring pressure on the U.S. to make concessions.
As North Korea was agreeing to multilateral talks, John R. Bolton, a hard-liner who is undersecretary of state for arms control, said in a speech in Seoul that Kim "seems to care more about enriching uranium than enriching his own people." Further remarks like those could cause diplomacy to fail.
