Teamsters OK Strike if UPS Talks Fail

Teamsters members have authorized their leaders to call a strike if they fail to reach an agreement with United Parcel Service Inc., raising the specter of a devastating walkout more than two months before the current contract expires on July 31.

The early strike vote, held over the weekend and announced to the company at a contract negotiating session Monday, was meant to “get their attention and cause them to react more seriously to our proposals,” said Ken Hall, lead negotiator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters declined to say how many of the 210,000 members covered by the contract cast ballots, but said more than 90% of those who voted favored the strike authorization.

UPS spokesman Norman Black characterized the strike vote as “routine” and said talks have been moving along well.

Agreements on regional supplemental contracts are close to completion, and daily negotiations on the national master agreement are starting this week at sessions in Chicago, he said.

These are the first major Teamsters-UPS negotiations since 1997, when a 15-day walkout crippled the package-delivery giant and caused an estimated $750 million in losses.

UPS has tried to reassure customers that it will have an agreement this summer, and Black said only a few have sent their business elsewhere.

Part-time work is a key issue in the talks. The Teamsters want 3,000 part-time jobs converted to full-time during each year of the contract. About 58% of the union-covered workers are part-time.