Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 28, 1990 TAG: 9007280154
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A contract offer of a $2.25-an-hour increase in pay and benefits was mailed to more than 140,000 Teamsters employees of UPS for ratification. The ballots were to be returned Tuesday when the contract expires.
But the union's Washington headquarters on Friday extended the return date by 10 days because a spokeswoman said, "the post office couldn't get all the ballots out."
She did not have a date when the strike could begin if the offer is rejected.
The company offer can be rejected or approved by 51 percent of the union's UPS members.
The U.S. Postal Service, competing package haulers and shippers have been making plans for months on alternate ways of handling the 10 million parcels hauled each day by UPS. The company's volume is 20 times the number of packages moved by the Postal Service, said Sam Dowdy of the Roanoke Post Office.
UPS customers say a Teamsters strike would add cost and time if their packages have to be handled by other companies.
Some UPS customers, like Leggett Department Stores, have started diverting shipments to other carriers. That decline this week prompted the Greenwich, Conn.-based UPS to start laying off employees, including an unspecified number in Roanoke. UPS expects to furlough 10 percent to 20 percent of its work force by the time the strike votes are counted, said Alan Caminiti, a company spokesman.
But from the shipper's viewpoint, "we'd be foolish not to make plans [for a strike], said Sidney Miller, area manager of Leggett.
Miller said he hopes a strike won't occur but "we have backups ready." A lot of incoming merchandise is designated for shipment by UPS and that must be changed if a strike is called, he said.
Tweeds, a Salem mail-order clothing company shipping as many as 4,000 packages a day by UPS, has been telling customers of a potential delay.
If a strike comes, Tweeds has an option of shipping by Federal Express or the Postal Service, said Ted Pamperin, the company's chairman. A trucking company may take the packages directly to Greensboro or another bulk mailing center of the Postal Service, he said.
Tweeds is shipping about 1 million packages a year, sending them out five days a week while taking orders seven days.
Another package company or air freight probably will be used by Gardner-Denver Mining & Construction to ship parts if UPS goes on strike, said Pete Davis, the Roanoke company's parts and service manager. That would raise its cost by 5 percent or more, depending on the type of transportation, he said.
Gardner-Denver ships an average of 60 to 70 packages a day, sending its parts all over the country and overseas, to Australia, England and Canada, Davis said.
Ewald-Clark probably would switch its shipments of photographic supplies and equipment in Virginia, West Virginia and part of North Carolina to another delivery company and the Postal Service, said Rick Hunter, manager of the downtown store. The company sends up to 20 packages a day and most of the incoming supplies are handled by UPS, Hunter said.
But Dowdy said the Postal Service is not prepared to handle all of the UPS volume. If a strike happens, the Postal Service would limit customers to mailing four packages at a time.
For shippers with larger volumes of parcels, the Postal Service will have 800 telephone lines for them to arrange to take packages to a bulk mailing center.
"We'll do everything we can for shippers but we still have to provide normal service," he said.
The Postal Service labor contract permits hiring of a number of temporary workers equal to 5 percent of its labor force, but officials said that may not be enough if a nationwide strike happens.
by CNB