Strike talks break down between UPS, Teamsters

Both sides prepare for long walkout

August 9, 1997
Web posted at: 6:39 p.m. EDT (2239 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Unable to break an impasse despite more than 20 hours of negotiations over three days, the Teamsters Union and United Parcel Service broke off talks Saturday, the sixth day of a nationwide strike against the package-delivery giant.

After talks ended with no end to the strike in sight, officials for the company and the union indicated they are preparing to dig in for a long walkout.

"At this point, it appears it's just useless to continue any discussions," said Teamsters President Ron Carey, leaving the talks in Washington. "It's time for us to start digging in. It's time for us to start getting our members prepared for this strike."

"It's vital to the interests of our members, their families and to the interests of working people in this country," he said.

"The position of the Teamsters continues to be unrealistic. That position does not allow us to compete," said UPS Chairman James Kelly. He said he was going to return to Atlanta, where UPS is headquartered, to "make the difficult decisions that we have to make going forward."

UPS: No decision on replacement workers

Kelly declined to say whether one of those tough decisions would be to start hiring new workers to replace the 185,000 strikers, which could escalate an already contentious situation. But he did say, "We're willing to do what it takes."

Saturday's negotiating session lasted less than two hours, in contrast to marathon sessions on Thursday and Friday that lasted 10 hours and nine hours, respectively.

Despite the urging of business leaders and at least three governors, the Clinton administration has so far refused to intervene in the dispute. But federal mediator John Calhoun Wells said administration officials continue to encourage both sides to keep negotiating.

"President Clinton and the secretary of labor and our entire administration [are] anxious for a settlement to be reached," Wells said.

Union rallies planned in California, Atlanta

Union officials plan to travel the country this weekend to meet and encourage striking Teamsters. Rallies were planned for outside a UPS air hub in Ontario, California, at an Florida Marlins-Atlanta Braves baseball game in Atlanta and in Nashville, Tennessee.

Since the strike began Monday, UPS has been handling less than 10 percent of its normal shipping volume, reassigning nonunion workers to process and deliver packages. The strike has snarled package delivery service across the country, affecting thousands of businesses, large and small.

UPS officials put the cost of the strike in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The company claims that as many as 7,000 Teamsters have crossed picket lines to go to work. Carey disputes that figure, saying the number of strike-breakers could fit "on the head of a pin."

UPS's final contract offer included a 1.5 percent annual wage increase for full-time workers, as well as a $3,060 bonus. But the company also wants to pull out of a Teamsters multi-employer pension fund, setting up a new fund just for UPS employees. The Teamsters object.

And the union also wants the company to use more full-time, as opposed to part-time, workers. About 58 percent of UPS workers are classified as part-time, and the base wage for those workers, $8 an hour, hasn't been raised in 15 years.

Correspondent Louise Schiavone and Reuters contributed to this report.

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