UPS-Teamsters Talks Yield No Sign of an End

WASHINGTON — Negotiators for United Parcel Service of America and the striking Teamsters union continued contract talks Friday, with little apparent movement, amid growing pressure from business leaders for White House intervention to resolve the strike, which has crippled the flow of about 12 million packages a day.

Virginia Gov. George Allen and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad each sent letters to President Clinton asking him to intervene to end the strike, saying it is threatening the jobs of employees in their states at mail-order companies that are unable to ship products to customers. Allen called for “federal action,” saying the economic effects of the strike “are equal to those in the American Airlines dispute in which you intervened earlier this year.”

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said the White House is feeling the pressure of lobbying over the UPS strike. But he said Clinton is hearing from both sides, not merely from businesses and political leaders who favor intervention.

“We have had a heavy to moderate volume of mail on this, really on both sides of the dispute,” McCurry said. “We certainly have heard from the small businesses that have been concerned about or affected directly by the strike. We’ve also heard from supporters of the Teamsters union who uphold their right to strike under our nation’s labor laws.”

The U.S. Postal Service said it plans to add Sunday delivery in an effort to handle a 75% jump in business for its Express Mail and Priority Mail services. Package volume was up 25% this week, officials said.

While Clinton’s aides are monitoring the economic effects of the strike, administration officials said they have not seen anything so far that should prompt the president to reassess his initial decision to avoid intervention.

Clinton has said he has no legal authority to order an end to the strike, absent evidence of greater economic upheaval than has occurred so far.

On other occasions, Clinton has been willing to use his influence to try to settle strikes, even absent formal authority. The clearest example was his failed attempt to avert a strike by major league baseball players two years ago.

McCurry said Friday that the baseball strike was different, because both parties had invited the White House to try to mediate the issues.

Meanwhile, contract talks began about 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Washington offices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service after its director, John Wells, gave Labor Secretary Alexis Herman a status report on negotiations, which resumed Thursday for the first time since the strike began.

UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters appear entrenched in their positions, with each side saying the renewed talks have yielded little progress toward an agreement.

About 183,000 Teamsters struck UPS on Monday after failing to reach a contract to replace one that expired July 30.

“We feel that for the sake of our customers and our employees, it was worth coming back and trying it again,” David Murray, chief negotiator for UPS, said as he entered talks Friday. “So here we are.”

UPS, the nation’s largest package-delivery company, has offered the Teamsters a five-year contract that includes allowing part-time employees to move into 10,000 full-time jobs as the jobs become available through attrition and retirement. The contract would also create 1,000 new full-time jobs and replace the current pension plan with one the company says will pay retirees an average of 50% more than they would receive under the existing plan.

The union opposes UPS’ proposal, saying it would create 3,000 fewer full-time positions than were generated under the expired contract. It has said it will not negotiate on a plan to have UPS employees withdraw from the union’s multi-employer pension plan. UPS is the largest of 30 companies that contribute to the Teamsters pension plan.

“If we’re going in there to discuss the proposal on the table, that is a dead end.” Teamsters President Ron Carey said as he headed into the talks.

The strike against Atlanta-based UPS has severely disrupted package delivery nationwide. The company, which has 80% of the market nationwide, said it has been able to deliver only about 10% of its usual volume daily.

The National Manufacturers Assn. on Friday became the latest industry group to publicly urge the White House to reconsider its refusal to intervene in the labor dispute.

Businesses have turned up the pressure on the Clinton administration as the stress on the operations of UPS competitors such as the Postal Service, Airborne Express and RPS Inc. mounts, causing significant delays in deliveries.