DATE: Tuesday, August 19, 1997              TAG: 9708190290

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KEVIN GALVIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   95 lines

UPS, TEAMSTERS REACH DEAL PENSION PROPOSAL MAY BE OUT UNION'S RETURN TO WORK UNCLEAR NEWS CELEBRATED AT LOCAL FACILITY 15-DAY STRIKE DISRUPTED DELIVERIES NATIONWIDE

The Teamsters union and United Parcel Service reached a tentative agreement to end a 15-day strike that disrupted package deliveries nationwide, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman said early today.

A weekend of virtually nonstop talks - more than 80 hours since Thursday - preceded the settlement, which was forged under direct pressure from Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and some prodding from President Clinton.

Details of the agreement were not immediately announced, but a source familiar with the agreement said it called for a five-year contract that increased the base wage for part-time workers and did not include a contentious pension proposal made by the company. It also would convert thousands of part-time jobs into full-time positions.

Union leaders were to travel to Washington today to receive the package for approval - the final steps before a rank-and-file vote.

The Teamsters, representing nearly two-thirds of UPS' 302,000 U.S. employees, went on strike Aug. 4. Their contract expired July 31.

On a normal business day, UPS moves 12 million bundles and parcels, or the equivalent of 5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. But with the support of the package delivery giant's 2,000 pilots, the Teamsters virtually shut down the company, leaving business owners scrambling to find alternative carriers.

It was not clear whether the workers would return to their jobs immediately, or whether they would wait for local union leaders to send the contract out to their members for a vote.

Locally, news of a tentative settlement was a cause for celebration for some.

Reached at the UPS facility on Air Rail Avenue in Virginia Beach, one UPS worker said late Monday night, ``People are jumping up and down here yelling, `We won! We won!' ''

Teamsters Local 822 President David Vinson could not be reached for comment Monday night. And Randy Lint, UPS Tidewater Division manager, said he did not know details of the tentative agreement and therefore could not comment.

During the walkout, the union insisted that the company add full-time positions. It also opposed UPS' plan to withdraw from the Teamsters' multi-employer pension and health funds and establish a separate benefit fund for UPS workers.

Pressure on both sides escalated during the strike's second week. The company estimated its losses at up to $300 million in business each week and the union owed pickets about $10 million in weekly strike benefits.

The Clinton administration had resisted calls from business groups to intervene. The White House said the work stoppage did not pose a threat to the nation's safety and health, the standard for intervention under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act.

But by publicly urging both sides to return to the bargaining table, and by remaining in the hotel where the talks took place, Herman raised the pressure for an end to the biggest strike in more than two decades.

This was Herman's first major test, and it was a shining moment. Organized labor had resisted her nomination, and her battle for confirmation to lead the Labor Department dragged on for months.

The first hint of progress came last Thursday, when UPS CEO James Kelly suggested the company was willing to modify its ``last, best and final offer'' and Labor Department officials described the day's discussions as ``substantive and detailed.''

But the talks dragged on.

Another high point came Sunday, when President Clinton said the union and the company should ``redouble their efforts and settle this strike, and they ought to do it today.''

They missed his deadline by one day.

Throughout the standoff, the company had sought to bypass union negotiators and appeal directly to employees by distributing copies of its proposal at plant gates and through the mail, and insisting that its final offer be put to a vote.

Teamsters' President Ron Carey had insisted that the union would not agree to any offer unless the offer included more full-time jobs and limits on subcontracting.

About 58 percent of UPS jobs are filled by part-time workers, and their $8-an-hour base salary has not increased since 1982. The company created 46,000 jobs in the past year - 38,000 of them part-time.

In addition to an annual 1.5 percent wage increase for full-time workers, the company's original offer included a $3,060 bonus for full-time employees. Full-time UPS drivers earn $19.95 an hour on average.

The original package included a $1,530 bonus for part-timers, but no wage increase.

The company proposal had included 1,000 new full-time jobs.

The company also insisted on a controversial change in the pension plan. UPS said the average employee's pension would increase by 50 percent, but the union had adamantly opposed the company's withdrawal from 31 regional plans in which UPS helped underwrite pensions for union members who worked for less-successful companies. MEMO: Staff writer Michael Clark contributed to this report.

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