Teamsters, UPS Take Recess in Strike Talks

WASHINGTON — Negotiations to avoid a UPS strike were recessed Friday night to allow Teamsters President Ron Carey time to consult with his bargaining committee. The company complained it already was losing business.

“This process is not getting us anywhere at the moment,” Carey said. He refused to specify a new strike deadline but stressed that union leaders had authority to call a strike when they considered the talks were no longer productive.

The company’s contract covering nearly two-thirds of the delivery giant’s 302,000 U.S. employees expired at midnight Thursday. But talks continued until dawn and then resumed Friday afternoon. The company’s brown trucks kept rolling.

John Calhoun Wells, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said the talks had adjourned for the night. “We will reconvene in negotiations when appropriate,” he said.

“There’s been no indication that any kind of job action is imminent,” UPS spokeswoman Gina Ellrich said after Carey called the recess. “We’re basically where we were several hours ago.”

She said earlier Friday that “our guys went over there very eager to talk.” The company reported that customers had begun shifting packages to rival carriers.

“We lost hundreds of thousands of packages overnight,” Ellrich said. “We anticipate that trend would continue without an extension or any kind of guarantee that there won’t be a job action.”

Leaving the federally mediated session Friday evening, Carey said the sticking points were the company’s refusal to yield on subcontracting and creating more full-time jobs.