UPS Says Jobs Gain Hinges on Return to Pre-Strike Volume

A key demand made by striking Teamsters against United Parcel Service of America--that 10,000 new full-time jobs be created for part-time workers--will be achieved if the company’s business bounces back to its pre-strike level, both sides said Wednesday.

That clarified and substantially softened the company’s previous portrayal of the contract provision following Monday night’s tentative settlement of the 15-day strike.

It also underscored some of the gains achieved by the Teamsters union in the settlement. Among other things, the five-year deal provides for 3% annual pay raises for full-time workers, 7% annual raises for part-timers, continued Teamster control of pensions and increased pension benefits.

UPS Chairman James P. Kelly, at a Tuesday news conference, had said that the 10,000 jobs were guaranteed “only to the extent that our volume increases.”

Company spokesman John Flick clarified that remark late Wednesday, saying the company would add the jobs over five years if its business is restored to its pre-strike delivery volume of 12 million packages a day.

For now, however, layoffs will be taking precedence over adding new jobs. An undetermined number of employees were laid off Wednesday, and UPS says that as many as 15,500 of its Teamsters workers nationally could be furloughed if the company fails to recover all of its pre-strike customers in coming weeks.

Still, both company and union officials expressed hope that aggressive marketing efforts being launched by UPS will restore the lost business. That would allow for the recall of the laid-off workers and the beginning of the creation of the full-time jobs from the existing part-time positions.

Part of the confusion may have stemmed from the complicated nature of the 160-page contract.

A separate agreement in the tentative pact, for instance, also calls for a second group of 10,000 part-timers to get full-time jobs--but those jobs, Flick said, are contingent on business growth and normal attrition.

* ON THE ROAD AGAIN

UPS worker returns to job, finds relieved customers. A1