Teamsters Strike Shuts Down Trucking Firms : Labor: 22 large companies close. Other businesses could be vulnerable to shortages if the walkout lasts a week or more.

In the first nationwide trucking strike in 15 years, the Teamsters shut down 22 large trucking companies Wednesday, forcing customers to scramble for available carriers and raising fears of serious disruptions to commerce if the walkout continues.

With no new labor negotiations scheduled, about 75,000 Teamsters across the country walked picket lines outside truck terminals in one of the largest strikes since the mid-1980s. There were only a few reports of scattered, minor violence.

The initial impact was minimal for businesses, but many factories and retail stores--many of which have adopted a policy of keeping lean inventories in recent years--could be vulnerable to shortages if the strike lasts a week or more, transportation observers said.

“If we get into Week 2, inventories start to get drawn down and things start to get serious,” said Douglas Rockel, a trucking industry analyst at Merrill Lynch Research. “After two weeks’ time, we could start to see shortages and prices might be increased.”

The 22 firms paralyzed by the strike move about 18% of the nation’s total freight. However, they transport about half of all mid-size shipments over long distances. Nearly every Fortune 500 company and countless smaller firms rely on the companies to deliver everything from auto parts to computers, clothing and home appliances.

But the firms move little in the way of food shipments, which are transported primarily by non-union companies or store-owned fleets.

“We are not making any pickups in the country today,” said Kathy Finlen, a spokeswoman for Overland Park, Kan.-based Yellow Freight System, the largest of nation’s so-called less-than-truckload carriers, which move shipments primarily of 10,000 pounds or less.

In Orange County, the story was much the same.

“They’re on strike here,” said Mike Marcourt, office manager of Yellow Freight’s Orange terminal. “We’re shut down.”

Down the street, striking Teamsters gathered at another local truck terminal, toting picket signs that urged support for the job action.

“Our solidarity with the national Teamsters is strong. No matter what, we back each other up,” said Raymond R. Robberson, a driver for Consolidated Freightways, a trucking company based in Menlo Park, Calif.

Robberson was among 25 drivers who picketed in front of the company’s terminal on Batavia Road in Orange. The drivers vowed to stick with the strike until union officials call it off.

“We’ll be here as long as it takes, 24 hours, day and night,” Robberson said.

As several motorists passing the strikers honked their horns in solidarity, Robberson predicted the walkout would have a crippling effect throughout the United States.

“Everything you see, everything in your house comes by truck,” said Robberson, who is with Teamsters Local 952 in Orange County. “Everyone will feel this sooner or later.”

CF Motor Freight of Menlo Park, Calif., said its 500 truck terminals nationwide were closed after its nearly 19,000 Teamster workers walked off their jobs. But a non-union sister company, Con-Way Transportation Services, remained open, a spokeswoman said.

In fact, the majority of the nation’s trucking companies, which are not covered by the Teamster contract, and independent truckers remained open Wednesday and reported a stream of new customers seeking available space.

Roy Ecclefield, operations manager for California Transportation Service in Laguna Niguel, hoped the potentially devastating strike would mean a financial windfall for his firm. California Transportation Service uses non-union drivers to ship everything from canned food to machine parts.

Ecclefield said on Wednesday morning that he received an unexpected shipping order from a company frantic to get its products on the road. He expected similar orders in the next few days.

“They’re going to call us,” he said. “If everyone else is down, they got nowhere else to go. I’m sure business will pick up.”

Like other companies eager to forestall any shipping slowdown, Ingram Micro Inc., one of the world’s largest distributors of microcomputer products, anticipated the strike.

A company spokeswoman said that warehouse managers began calling non-union trucking companies to take up the slack created by the strike. The company normally uses both union and non-union drivers.

The Santa Ana-based company, consequently, had experienced no problems on Wednesday and did not anticipate any if the strike continues.

“We wanted to ensure no disruption in our service and there has not been,” the spokeswoman said.

Other non-union trucking companies were also feeling the effects.

“We are getting a tremendous influx of additional freight volume,” said Jeff Jordan, a spokesman for Overnite Transportation, a large non-union trucking company with headquarters in Richmond, Va.

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Jordan said the company will put workers on overtime and run its trucks to handle the additional orders, but some shipments may have to wait. “We are at or near capacity in most places.”

In some cases, competing firms can handle only a small portion of the freight handled by the 22 firms. United Parcel Service, for example, is prepared to handle more business but can move shipments of only 150 pounds or less, a spokesman said.

Talks broke off last week between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Trucking Management Inc., which represents the trucking firms in labor negotiations, after the union rejected what the companies described as their last offer. The Teamsters said company proposals to allow greater use of part-time workers and railroads would eventually lead to lower starting pay and job losses.

The unionized companies, which face stiff competition from fast-growing non-union firms with lower costs, say the proposals are necessary to ensure their long-term survival.

On Wednesday, Trucking Management agreed to let many of its smaller members sign interim agreements with the Teamsters to allow them to continue operating during the strike. Those firms, which operate primarily on the East Coast and employ about 10,000 Teamsters, would adopt the terms of a contract when one is reached.

In Southern California, which is home to an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 union members affected by the strike, Teamster picket lines formed outside about 100 terminals.

Sympathetic drivers honked their truck and car horns as they passed about 25 strikers peacefully walking a picket line in front of the Yellow Freight System and CF terminals on East Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles early Wednesday afternoon.

Management proposals to hire more part-time workers seemed to be the strongest factor prompting the Teamsters to picket.

“They just want to increase their profits and turn this into a part-time industry,” said Zack Lopez, a local driver for Yellow who has been hauling freight for the company for 27 years.

In Pacoima, Teamster Kelly Price worried about the strike’s impact on his family. Price and his wife, Annette, are expecting their third child. He said a long strike would hurt his family.

“We will have to dip into our savings, but that would last for about two months,” said Price, who was picketing in front of Roadway Express Inc. “But I will not cross the picket line.”

The first day of the strike found many companies shifting to other carriers to avoid disruptions.

“The potential for a negative impact on inventory increases the longer the strike lasts,” said Laura Melillo, spokeswoman for R. H. Macy & Co., operator of the Bullock’s and I. Magnin chains.

Macy, like many other retailers, has a lean inventory system, which gives store operators the flexibility to quickly change product mix. However, anticipating a possible strike, Macy ordered and received much of its spring line of clothing earlier than usual, Melillo said.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, was also prepared for the strike.

“The company had selected alternative carriers as backups for the small percentage of our carriers who are Teamsters,” said Jane Arend, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Operations at the nation’s Big Three auto manufacturers, while not immediately affected by the walkout, could be disrupted if the strike lasts beyond this week.

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The reasons: Auto makers increasingly depend on outside suppliers for parts and components; they are using just-in-time inventory controls that reduce manufacturing costs but leave plants with few spare parts, and high demand for cars and trucks has plants operating at capacity, using parts on hand quickly.

Chrysler Corp. could be the most vulnerable to a prolonged Teamster walkout because it relies on outside suppliers for 70% of its parts. Its factories are running full tilt to meet the record demand for its vehicles.

“We are looking at some alternatives to deal with a strike of short duration,” Chrysler spokesman Lee Sechler said.

A trucking strike in 1979, when the Teamsters were far more powerful, ended up crippling the auto industry with a walkout-turned-lockout that lasted 10 days. The cutoff in freight service prompted General Motors to lay off 12,400 workers. The Chrysler Corp. shut down almost completely, closing nine of its 10 North American auto assembly plants.

The 300,000 truck drivers and warehouse workers affected by that dispute went back to work after a settlement was reached providing 30% increases in wages and benefits over three years.

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Times staff writers James M. Gomez and Debora Vrana in Orange County; Bettina Boxall, Stuart Silverstein and George White in Los Angeles; Chau Lam in the San Fernando Valley, and Donald Nauss in Detroit contributed to this story.