October 25, 2005

Santa Cruz
Crowd protests at Metro director's home
By GENEVIEVE BOOKWALTER
sENTINEL STAFF WRITER

About 50 union workers from around the area converged on the Encinal Street transit district offices Monday morning for a "militant" picket line to discourage workers belonging to another union from reporting to work.

But Metro General Manager Les White said the protest paled in comparison to one Sunday evening at board member Dene Bustichi's Scotts Valley home. According to police reports, up to 50 people chanted, banged drums and set off firecrackers to protest the bus drivers' strike, in its 29th day today.

"About 9:30 I got a knock on the door; I was actually asleep. The whole family was asleep," Bustichi said Monday. "Two girls at the door handed me some information and said they wanted to talk about the bus strike. I said, 'It's 9:30 at night and I'm standing here in my boxers and I'm going to go back to bed.'"

What Bustichi didn't realize, he said, was that more than 30 students and other protesters were in front of his house. After he shut the door, he said, they yelled, chanted, grabbed things out of his yard, beat on his trailer and took sheet metal from a neighbor's yard.

His children, ages 5 and 12, were so frightened they slept in the same room for the rest of the night, he said.

"The feeling of safety in my house that my children and wife felt is gone right now," an angry Bustichi said.

But UC Santa Cruz graduate student Maia Ramnath, 32, said Bustichi's neighbors are protective.

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Most of Sunday night's protesters were members of UCSC's Student and Worker Coalition for Justice, Ramnath said. Some planned to talk to Bustichi while others distributed fliers to his neighbors, focusing on his stance as a Metro board member.

They weren't prepared for the man with a gun, another with a stick or the woman with a garden hose.

"We underestimated the reaction of the neighbors," Ramnath said. "A man came out of the house and started yelling profanities at me," she said, "and said in quite aggressive terms that we needed to get out or beware.

"This other woman came out with a hose and said, 'It looks like a good time to water the lawn,' and started spraying us," Ramnath said. One neighbor pointed a shotgun at protesters, she said.

Police showed up as the protesters were leaving, a department release said. No citations were reported.

In retrospect, Ramnath said, the group should have come earlier and been quieter. "I guess going to the office does seem like a reasonable thing to do," she said.

Bonnie Morr, chairwoman of United Transportation Union Local 23, which represents 145 striking bus drivers, defended the protesters.

"They're students," Morr said. "I was a child of the '60s. We wanted answers. We wanted someone to respond."

Monday morning, a more orderly protest took place on the sidewalk in front of Metro's administrative offices. District officials asked some employees belonging to another union to report to work, and Paul Johnston, secretary and treasurer of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, organized a "militant" picket line to discourage them. The district doesn't need a full staff if buses aren't running, so those employees are being paid to remain on call should Metro need them.

Still, carpenters, grocery workers, Teamsters and others answered Johnston's call.

Bus drivers went on strike Sept. 27, after Metro's board vetoed a state-mediated contract agreement. The strike has stranded about 23,000 riders daily.

The two sides are negotiating a three-year contract. Originally, medical premiums and general leave ­­-- an optional, unpaid month off but with benefits — were two of the biggest issues. Now, drivers are bargaining over health care premiums, cost-of-living wage increases and are asking the district to pay more of their pension costs.

Normally, 37 bus routes run from Davenport to Watsonville, up the San Lorenzo Valley and over to San Jose.

Negotiators are scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon, after the transit board meets in the Santa Cruz City Council chamber at 9 a.m.

Contact Genevieve Bookwalter at gbookwalter@santacruzsentinel.com.