DATE: Thursday, July 31, 1997               TAG: 9707310421

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MICHAEL CLARK, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

UPS STRIKE MAY COME TONIGHT CONTRACT TALKS ARE "AT A STANDSTILL," BUT OFFICIALS SAY DEAL STILL POSSIBLE.

For a business built on timeliness, the hours are running out on United Parcel Service.

At midnight tonight, the contract expires between the international package-delivery service and the Teamsters union that represents about 190,000 of UPS' 338,000 employees.

A strike would halt UPS package-delivery service in Hampton Roads, directly affecting local UPS customers and 1,000 local employees, most of them Teamsters members, who work for the company at locations in Oyster Point, Virginia Beach and Norfolk.

Entrenched in negotiations, both sides say they want to avoid a strike.

``We're hoping it won't come to that,'' said James Wright, business agent for Teamsters Local No. 822 in Norfolk. ``But right now things seem to be at a standstill.''

Negotiations could go down to 11:59 tonight, said Mark Dickens, spokesman for Atlanta-based UPS.

``We wish we were farther along than we are now,'' he said. ``But that doesn't mean we won't reach agreement.''

The Teamsters want higher pay, limits on work given to subcontractors, more full-time positions and health and safety improvements. UPS wants more flexibility in hiring and work rules to compete with other package-delivery companies.

But the biggest issue still in negotiation Wednesday, Wright said, is control of the pension for full-time workers.

``The union has had control of the pension since the 1970s,'' he said. ``Now, the company wants control.''

Said Dickens: ``We have addressed the pension issue. We're not going to get into specifics, but we haven't proposed anything to reduce any benefits, and they're only proposals. We have to wait to see how the union responds.''

The Teamsters also want to raise wages for part-time workers.

``In 1982, part-time workers made $12 an hour,'' Wright said. ``Now, they make $8 an hour.''

The mood around the local Teamsters office, Wright said, is ``a little apprehensive.

``As long as we have the pilots' union support, we'll be OK.''

The Independent Pilots Association, which represents the 2,000 UPS pilots, announced Tuesday in a full-page USA Today ad that it will honor Teamsters' picket lines.

UPS officials tout the fact that the company has never had a nationwide strike. Hampton Roads UPS workers did strike for about three months in 1976, as part of an Atlantic region action from Pennsylvania to South Carolina.

The prospect of this strike has already cost the company.

UPS said Tuesday that business had declined and that it had begun laying off workers as the contract deadline neared.

The strike would shift business to the U.S. Postal Service and other competitors, such as Memphis-based Federal Express.

On Tuesday, FedEx and the Postal Service issued statements saying they had contingency plans in place in the event of a UPS strike and sudden demand for services.

``These plans are to facilitate the handling of increased parcel post volume without compromising existing mail service,'' said Horace Hinshaw, a Postal Service spokesman.

Most large firms in Hampton Roads are preparing for a strike, but taking a wait-and-see approach.

Checkered Flag Motor Car Co. in Virginia Beach is ready to make other arrangements, said vice president Ray Carlile.

``We receive a lot more than we ship, but we can change to FedEx,'' he said.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Frank Brown said the railroad giant will do the best it can with the alternatives.

``We use all the couriers, so we will just switch our packages around to get them where they need to go,'' he said.

Even if a new contract is not signed by midnight tonight, UPS hopes the union uses other options in place of a strike, company spokesman Dickens said.

``We have an open request for a contract extension,'' he said. ``It has not been granted, but it's not out of the question.''

Despite the Teamsters' vote earlier this month to authorize an international strike, the union hasn't given any indication it will do that, Dickens said.

``They might call for only one building or certain chapters to strike,'' he said. ``There are a number of things they could do.'' MEMO: The New York Times News Service contributed to this story.

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