Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 6, 1990 TAG: 9007060149
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Last week, Teamsters officers unanimously rejected UPS' contract offer and were advising UPS' 140,000 union workers to vote against it. Ballots were to be mailed to union workers beginning next Monday.
Although contract talks have resumed in Arlington, UPS spokesman Ken Sternad said the company is sticking with its last wage and benefits offer.
The current talks are focusing on clarifying contract language and non-economic issues like work rules, Sternad said. The contract expires on July 31.
UPS has offered the union a $2.25-an-hour wage and benefits increase over three years - $1.50 in wages and 75 cents in health and pension benefits.
The average UPS union worker makes $16.10 an hour in wages, $4 per hour in health and pension benefits and another $4 per hour in other benefits, including vacation pay, Sternad said.
The wage increase offered by UPS amounts to roughly 3 percent per year and benefits increase of 6 percent. The company's proposal calls for cost-of-living increases if the inflation rate exceeds 14 percent.
Approximately 500 people from the Roanoke Teamsters local work for UPS in company operations in Roanoke, Covington, Lynchburg and Dublin. UPS is building a new regional hub at Thirlane Road near the Roanoke Regional Airport. The hub, which should open next May, will employ 536 workers or twice as many as now work at the company's center at Statesman Park.
Sternad said the current labor talks should have no effect on the future of the Roanoke hub, which the company says could have as many as 1,341 workers by the end of the decade.
UPS management is still confident that its contract offer will be ratified.
by CNB