Labor solidarity needed for Greyhound strikers DR CO

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Report back from E. Europe, DEA « V651 Vol. 8, No. 6 VESI Et.% .. 19.. JUNE 1990 50 CENTS Greyhound Chairman Fred Currey is beginning to learn what Eastern Airlines' boss Frank Lorenzo discovered: union-busting can be very costly. The country's only nationwide bus line lost $55.8 million during the first three months of this year.

The loss, combined with $340 million in debt, puts Greyhound on the brink of bankruptcy. The company's $150 million senior debt, for example, is trading at 40 cents on the dollar, down 60 percent from January.

The financial problems of Currey reflect his difficulty in breaking a strike by 9400 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) that began on March 2. Greyhound's bosses had counted on 3000 drivers crossing the picket line by mid-April. So far less than 500 ATU members have scabbed. Currey has hired 3400 "replacement" workers.

Taking a chapter out of Lorenzo's notebook, Currey is offering "cut-rate" fares to attract passengers. Most of these tickets will barely cover operating costs.

Currey has also hired "security" guards to protect Greyhound buses from "violenceprone" strikers and spent some $11 million on advertising to push his union-busting campaign to the public.

Currey went so far as to announce at a May 8 press conference that "the strike is over, or at least it's irrelevant."

But that's not the view of the ATU strikers, who are more determined than ever to stop the buses and force Currey back to the bargaining table. The strike is about winning decent wages and working conditions. Strikers are ready to stay out as long as necessary to win those modest goals either from Currey or from whoever manages Greyhound.

Solidarity rallies and expanded picketing are the backbone of the fight. Joining the strikers are paperworkers and shipyard workers in Portland, Maine; construction and hotel workers in Boston; and many other

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Boston rally backs Greyhound strikers, See page 6.