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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993                   TAG: 9308040086
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Journal of Commerce
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

UPS, TEAMSTERS TO EXTEND CONTRACT

United Parcel Service and the Teamsters union, realizing they will not come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement before their self-imposed Aug. 10 deadline, have agreed to extend the current pact indefinitely.

Under the extension, each side would have to give the other advance notice of five working days before terminating the agreement. The contract covers 165,000 UPS employees.

Bernie Mulligan, a Teamsters spokesman, said Tuesday the two sides have made progress on some "non-economic" issues, but have not resolved certain "work-place issues."

Mulligan also said UPS has not even made an economic proposal covering such issues as wages, benefits and health-and-welfare matters.

"There really is a long way to go," he said.

Ken Sternad, a UPS spokesman, said there was no chance the Teamsters could agree on a contract and mail the ballots to the rank-and-file for ratification by the Aug. 10 deadline. In the past, it has usually taken up to three weeks for ballots to be returned and tallied.

Sternad said the extension will help ease the fears of the 1.1 million regular UPS customers worried about the impact of a possible strike. He said he doesn't expect the negotiations to stretch on for many more weeks.

The five-day advance notice is critical because by law the Teamsters could have struck at any time after Aug. 10.

UPS has grown increasingly frustrated over the slow pace of the talks and has said it is losing business as anxious shippers look elsewhere for package delivery.

UPS will not comment on how much business is being diverted, but company and industry sources have said between 6 percent and 8 percent of its traffic base is at risk.

UPS has alleged that competitors such as Federal Express Corp., Roadway Package System and the U.S. Postal Service have played on shipper fears in order to grab market share. All three rivals have denied UPS' allegations.

by CNB