Sat Jul 04 2009
By Matt Fredmonsky
Record-Courier staff writer
Striking PARTA bus drivers did not affect the first day of classes at Kent State University Monday, as on-campus bus routes continued running on schedule.
Diesel engines rumbled and air brakes hissed with a familiar frequency outside the Kent Student Center terminal off Summit Street. Students Dom Cannistra and Matt Herrick waited before hopping onto the Campus Loop route and grabbing seats near the back.
During the weekend, both students had heard of Monday's pending strike as the entire student body prepared for classes to resume.
"I was banking on it because if the buses weren't running I wasn't going to class," Herrick said.
The third-year computer technology major lives off-campus on Summit Street. Despite having to attend classes, Herrick relished the fact he could still grab a seat aboard the loop route for his morning class in the Music and Speech Center building on East Main Street.
"It would've been a hike," Herrick said.
Cannistra, an education major, said he would have made it to classes had the buses stopped running on campus, but he still prefers a bus to his sneakers.
"It's just a lot easier than walking," Cannistra said.
Early Monday morning PARTA's union drivers began picketing outside the transportation agency's headquarters on Summit Street near S.R. 261 in Kent. The strike centered around contract language in which union drivers want non-union drivers to pay fair share fees, which amount to the equivalent of union dues. PARTA officials oppose the fees and argue implementation of such charges would make it difficult for the agency to hire part-time drivers.
Frank Hairston, PARTA's marketing director, said about 65 of PARTA's approximately 135 drivers are students. None of PARTA's student drivers are union members.
Hairston said primarily student drivers operate the buses running the on-campus routes. Eleven buses were shuttling students around the university Monday morning.
"All our buses are up and running and we're transporting people," Hairston said.
Tom Clapper, the university's manager of transportation services, said KSU did not see any impact on campus as a result of the union drivers' strike.
For students like Lori Pamer, the buses are not quite a necessity.
Pamer is a commuter student who parks far from the core of campus at the Allerton baseball fields and has become accustomed to riding a bus to class. She was unaware of the strike Monday morning.
"I like to take the bus here, but after my classes are over I walk back to my car," Pamer said.
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