
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 15, 1994                   TAG: 9404150084
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

STALLED TRUCKING TALKS TO START AGAIN

The Teamsters union and representatives of major trucking companies agreed Thursday to resume negotiations to end a nationwide strike, now more than a week old.

Teamsters President Ron Carey and Robert A. Young III, board chairman of Trucking Management Inc., which represents the 22 carriers, said in statements that the talks would resume on Monday in Washington.

Carey said the strike would continue during the negotiations.

The talks would be the first since they stalled March 31 over use of trains and part-time workers. About 70,000 union drivers and dock workers struck the trucking firms a week later.

``We hope this leads to a settlement that is good for freight workers and their families and communities,'' Carey said.

``We are delighted that we will now sit down and discuss all the issues so critical to our industry, our company and our employees,'' said Young, who also is president of ABF Freight System Inc.

Young said there were no preconditions to the resumption of the talks.

Both sides had said they were willing to resume contract talks. Carey said he repeated the offer Wednesday and received a letter from TMI that night that seemed to indicate the carriers might drop their insistence that their March 31 offer was final.

TMI and the union agreed during a phone call Thursday afternoon to return to the bargaining table.

by CNB