No Talks Scheduled in Western Union Strike : Non-Union Employees Maintain Operations of Financially Troubled Firm

Financially troubled Western Union was struck by 6,500 technicians, operators and clerks early Sunday after contract talks broke off, but non-union employees staffed offices across the country.

Richard Brockert, international president of the striking United Telegraph Workers, said the walkout will “certainly have an impact on their service.”

Brockert said the strike would affect all company services, including public messages and money orders, as well as equipment repair and Western Union’s satellite system, which also has military uses.

Non-Union Staffers Working

Company spokesman Warren Bechtel said 2,000 non-union staffers kept Western Union offices open after the strike began at midnight Saturday. At least two of the company’s central telephone bureaus, in Moorestown, N.J., and Bridgeton, Mo., were being picketed, he said.

Brockert said federal mediator Jim Elmore was to arrive today at the stalled negotiations here, but the union official didn’t know exactly what role Elmore would play.

The UTW negotiations committee met all day Sunday to decide whether to resume talks, which broke down just before the three-year contract expired at midnight, Brockert said. He said both sides had refused to yield in the negotiations, which began July 8.

“We’re very far apart,” Brockert said Sunday. “There’s nothing scheduled, but the company is available to talk.”

Another union, the Communications Workers of America, representing about 600 of Western Union’s 10,000 employees, continued negotiating Sunday at Westbury, N.Y., Bechtel said. Their contract will be resumed on a day-to-day basis during negotiations, he said.

Brockert said Western Union wants “total elimination of job security” for union workers.

Last year workers agreed to a six-month, 10% wage cut to help save the company $10 million. Western Union posted a net loss of $58.4 million in 1984.

Brockert said management wants to contract out more work to non-union members, reduce health benefits and shift the cost to the workers. He said no wage increases were on the table from the company’s side, but it did offer a 3% bonus that would be available July 28, 1987.

“That would average about $670 per employee. That’s a one-time thing, and they wouldn’t get it until after two years,” he said.

Job Security an Issue

Most of the UTW employees are technicians, clerks and messengers who handle telegrams and money orders. Messengers are now paid an hourly wage of about $8, while clerks get about $9.50 an hour and technicians are paid about $13.50 an hour.

CWA Vice President Jan Pierce said the talks in New York also revolve around the issue of job security. His union represents workers in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. “It’s so complex when you deal with a company that feels it has one foot in the grave,” said Pierce.

Analysts have attributed the company’s money problems to a fast-changing telecommunications industry, bad luck, poor management and the high cost of its electronic mail service, EasyLink.

Bechtel said “efforts have been directed toward recovering from that crisis” but said losses were reported in the first and second quarter of this year.

“I definitely think a long strike could destroy the company,” Brockert said. “There’s competition out there that’s going to jump on them.” He said the company had proposed layoffs of between 1,500 and 2,000 workers. Management also proposed a 50% cut in severance pay but has since proposed a smaller cut, he said.

Bechtel said he did not foresee the company cutting services if all 6,500 UTW employees remained off the job. The company employs 10,000 people.