DATE: Saturday, August 16, 1997             TAG: 9708160298

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MICHAEL CLARK, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

HOPE JOINS STRIKERS ON UPS PICKET LINES TEAMSTERS CAUTION AGAINST OPTIMISM ON LATEST OFFER.

Unlike most of the previous 11 days in the Teamsters strike against United Parcel Service, Friday began with hope for a settlement.

Renewed negotiations between Teamsters and UPS management lent an air of optimism to the picket line at the UPS facility on Air Rail Avenue in Virginia Beach.

``This is the best I've seen morale-wise,'' said James Cotterell, union shop steward and full-time UPS driver. ``I heard (UPS) put in a new proposal and that they backed off on the pension.''

After a 16-hour session that began Thursday, UPS management suggested there was room for compromise in the bargaining.

But as Cotterell and other Teamster members continued to picket Friday morning, the news from the negotiations in Washington, D.C., was not all positive.

Teamsters President Ron Carey sent a pessimistic bulletin to local union leaders.

David Vinson, president of Teamsters Local 822, said Carey told them to ``keep the screws tightened until this is over.''

At a 3 p.m. press conference in Washington, Carey announced that no agreements had been reached, but said he would continue to meet ``as long as there is hope.''

Despite instructions to continue picketing and the lack of a contract, hope reigned on local picket lines.

``We're breaking 'em down, $600 million later,'' said Beth Biggs, full-time UPS driver picketing the Virginia Beach UPS facility. ``I think we're going back to work.''

UPS pilots, often seen at the Air Rail Avenue picket line, were there Friday morning, too.

They hope the end of the strike is near.

``What's the press' catch phrase? I'm cautiously optimistic,'' UPS 747 pilot Jim Skluzak said.

While Teamsters were drawing support on the picket line, UPS was appealing for federal intervention.

Brenda Van Dorn, sales director for Boxer Rebellion Inc. in Virginia Beach, said UPS management asked her to request federal intervention in the strike.

``I had talked to one of the managers over the phone who said people were faxing their congressmen and the president,'' she said.

UPS did not ask Van Dorn to pick sides, she said.

As a UPS customer, Van Dorn hopes for a settlement.

She makes three or four trips to the post office each day, plus a trip to Federal Express.

If the strike continues and orders decrease, Van Dorn said the T-shirt and boxer short manufacturer will see long-term effects.

If customers cancel orders, the company will consider layoffs in its Emporia manufacturing plant, which employs about 50 people.

At 9:15 a.m. Friday, 23 UPS trucks left the Virginia Beach facility. As they crossed over railroad tracks, UPS driver Biggs doubted their mission.

``There aren't any packages in those trucks,'' she said. ``When you have a full load, those trucks don't move. They're bouncing too much. They're driving around to be seen, like there's work coming in.''

Randy Lint, UPS Tidewater Division manager, said the company delivered about 12,000 packages in the area Thursday and expected the number to be the same Friday.

``Plus, we're starting to make more pickups,'' he said.

There is hope to settle the strike ``as long as they're talking,'' Lint said. But the compromise UPS Chairman James P. Kelly mentioned after Thursday's negotiations did not mean the company was backing down.

UPS said Friday that it's locked in another high-stakes battle - this time with Uncle Sam.

The Internal Revenue Service says the Atlanta-based cargo company owes the government as much as $712 million, plus interest and penalties, for tax disputes dating to 1983 through 1990, UPS disclosed in a quarterly financial statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

During a morning prayer at the UPS plant in Springfield, Mo. on

Friday, Ron Fleming and other striking workers ask for an end to the

strike.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu