Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 4, 1994 TAG: 9402040282
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is threatening a nationwide strike Monday against the United Parcel Service in a dispute over how to handle new heavy packages.
In early January, UPS said it would, starting Monday, increase the maximum weight limit on packages from 70 pounds to 150 pounds. Teamsters International Vice President Mario Perrucci said Wednesday that while UPS insists one person can deliver the heavyweight packages, the Teamsters flatly disagree.
"I know I can't lift 150 pounds, or even 100 pounds. We're not going to have our members injured," he said.
Perrucci said the 165,000 Teamsters would walk out Monday unless the company agreed "to come up with something we can live with: a separate operation, a special truck that has tailgates that go up and down hydraulicly, two people on a truck when needed, hydraulic jacks in a truck with pallets."
A Teamsters spokesman said the UPS sorting hub in Roanoke would be included in the strike. UPS did not return phone calls seeking comment. - Newsday
Old baby formula found at Food Lion
WASHINGTON - Food Lion stores in eight Southeast states routinely sell outdated infant formula, some that expired more than a year, a coalition of unions and consumer groups charged Thursday.
Food Lion responded that the claims were politically motivated.
Government inspectors in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia have removed 3,549 expired cans from 212 Food Lion stores in five years, including at least one that was over a year too old to sell, according to a study by the coalition.
The groups bought another 832 outdated cans from 119 stores in those states and Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky and West Virginia, they said. In Kannapolis, N.C., they bought one can on Dec. 14 that had expired in June 1992 - 563 days earlier, they said.
Formula generally lasts a year, and federal law requires manufacturers to label the date the nutrients begin breaking down, meaning babies who are given old formula are at risk of malnutrition, said Linda Golodner, president of the National Consumers League.
Food Lion said it would investigate and would provide a free can of formula to any shopper who finds an expired can on the shelf. - Associated Press
by CNB