Deal Could Put Some Union Drivers Back in Truck Cabs

A strike by at least 75,000 Teamster drivers and dock workers kept 22 trucking companies across the nation shut down for a second day Thursday, and no further contract negotiations were scheduled.

The Teamsters, torn recently by bitter internal feuding on other union issues, maintained a united front on the strike, keeping all the trucking companies’ facilities closed from coast to coast.

In a move that could enable as many as 13,000 of the strikers to return to work, however, union leaders were expected to decide today whether to negotiate interim agreements with 17 of the smaller trucking companies.

Those companies--many of them financially troubled--were freed Wednesday by Trucking Management Inc. (TMI), the negotiating arm for the 22 employers, to cut deals to keep them operating. They would be obligated, however, to accept whatever master freight contract the five other firms eventually make with the Teamsters. The five are Yellow Freight Systems, Consolidated Freightways, Roadway Express, Churchill Truck Lines and ABF Freight System.

With negotiations suspended a second day, the Teamsters and TMI resorted to hurling barbs at each other. TMI spokesman Sam Wang said the union representatives “still refuse to discuss the key elements of our proposals,” among them the addition of lower-paid, part-time workers and elimination of the union’s right to strike over unresolved grievances.

“Until they are going to discuss those (contract proposals), there’s not much to talk about,” Wang said.

The reply, from Teamsters’ spokeswoman Gaye Williams: “TMI has not shown any interest in negotiating, and here we are.”

Although analysts say some retailers and manufacturers could be squeezed within a week by a shortage of goods due to the strike, many companies reported Thursday that they have made contingency plans to avoid immediate shortages.

“If we’re forced to, we can go to other modes of transportation. . . . At this point, we don’t see (the strike) having any meaningful consequences for us,” said a spokesman for Kmart.