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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990                   TAG: 9007250216
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

UPS LAYOFFS PRECEDE VOTE

United Parcel Service said Tuesday it has begun laying off employees as the volume of shipments declined in expectation of a Teamsters union strike next Wednesday.

Alan Caminiti, a spokesman at the company's headquarters in Greenwich, Conn., said 10 to 20 percent of the UPS work force probably will be on layoff by next week, but he did not have a number of furloughs for the Roanoke distribution center. The company has about 265 employees at its hub in Roanoke.

UPS hopes the Teamsters will ratify its last offer, Caminiti said, but the results of a mail ballot will not be known until Tuesday.

UPS is sending its shippers a letter saying the company cannot guarantee delivery of packages after the union contract expires Tuesday night, Caminiti said. When shippers get that letter, the volume will drop more, he predicted.

Caminiti said the system probably will shut down if the union votes for a strike but that packages from international destinations probably will be delivered.

UPS has offered $1.50 an hour in pay increases and 75 cents in health and pension benefits.

Federal Express and other competing package delivery firms are making plans to handle additional business. If the employees strike, the U.S. Postal Service "will do our best . . . but we do have a limited amount of vehicles and storage space," said Corliss White, a Postal Service employee in Atlanta.

But the Postal Service said it may limit the number of packages it accepts to avoid being buried under an avalanche of shipments.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

by CNB