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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 29, 1994                   TAG: 9404290160
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TEAMSTERS NEAR SETTLING

Teamster leaders from around the United States will gather Friday in Washington to decide whether to accept the four-year contract that union officials described as staving off major concessions.

Pointing out that 40 percent of their members are over 50 years old, union officials boasted that they had won the largest amount of contributions ever for pensions and health care expenses from the truckers.

If the contract is accepted, union officials said workers could return to their jobs almost immediately. A mail ballot by the rank and file on the contract would take place within four weeks, they added.

``We won on the very key issue of not letting them change full-time jobs to low-wage part-time jobs,'' union President Ron Carey declared.

While the union held off the trucking companies' demands for a new level of part-time jobs, it surrendered on other issues.

And opponents waging a bitter battle with Carey for control of the union are likely to focus on these concessions.

Under the agreement, the union's right to strike over grievances is replaced by binding arbitration with the truckers. The companies also will be able to boost their railroad shipments to 28 percent of their freight. That is nearly three times what many companies now ship by rail.

But the union won a guarantee from the truckers that any drivers who lose their jobs as a result of the increase in rail shipments must be offered other driving positions. Furthermore, these jobs cannot be eliminated.

In another bow to the trucking companies' demand to cut costs, new workers' salaries will begin at 75 percent of regular wages and reach the top after three years. Currently, new workers start at 85 percent of normal wages, and catch up within 11/2 years.

The companies will be able to limit workers to their regular 40-hour work weeks, and offer overtime work to so-called casual employees, who will earn $14.45 an hour.

The companies' use of casual workers varies across the country. These workers generally put in between four and six hours a day when asked to replace workers who are out because of vacation or illness.

The union's full-time workers, who now earn about $17 an hour, will see an increase of $3.20 an hour in wages and benefits at the end of the four-year agreement.