[PEN-L:11734] Co. Claims Impasse; Americans Support Workers

[Michael Eisenscher <meisenscher@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

UPS: Talks with Teamsters at Impasse
 01:39 p.m Aug 13, 1997 Eastern

 By David Lawsky

 WASHINGTON (Reuter) - United Parcel Service Chairman James Kelly Wednesday
declared
 efforts to end the 10-day-old strike by Teamsters at an impasse, even as
Labor Secretary
 Alexis Herman tried to get talks restarted.

 No fresh negotiations were scheduled in the increasingly bitter strike by
the country's
 second-biggest union against the nation's dominant package carrier, which
has cut delivery of
 UPS' normal 12 million packages daily as striking workers demand that more
part-time jobs be
 made full-time.

 A poll showed the union winning the battle for public opinion, at least for
now, although many
 Americans have been inconvenienced by the dispute.

 In the first report of significant layoffs at another company from the
walkout, Russ Berrie and
 Co. Inc., a New Jersey-based maker of plush dolls and gift items, said it
cut 100 workers
 because the strike has hurt its ability to ship goods.

 ``At this time of year, we're shipping a lot of seasonal and Christmas
items. We can't find enough
 sources to get out the products,'' President Curts Cooke said, adding that
the company was
 getting out about 25 percent of its normal shipments.

 Cooke said if the UPS strike ends, the part-time and temporary workers let
go last week
 probably would be rehired.

 UPS' Kelly said he saw no prospect of a quick settlement after two sets of
talks adjourned last
 week without progress.

 ``I would characterize them as being at an impasse,'' he said. He insisted,
as he has before, that
 the union should allow members to vote on the company's last offer.

 ``We reached impasse with the Teamsters two contracts ago. The Teamsters,
at that point, sent
 out the ballot to our people to vote on, and they voted yes, and they kept
working and they
 didn't lose any paychecks and our business kept on going and that's what we
believe should
 happen this time,'' he said.

 But the union said workers have already rejected that approach and the
company must be
 willing to compromise.

 Still, a cautiously optimistic Herman told reporters she expected to hear
from both sides again,
 saying each ``expressed a willingness to be more flexibile in looking at
their own differences.''
 Herman spoke with both parties Wednesday morning and was trying to bring
them to the table.

 The union got a boost on Tuesday with the announcement by the AFL-CIO that
its 78 member
 unions would loan $10 million a week to pay $55 a week in benefits to the
185,000 striking
 Teamsters.

 The Teamsters union already owes $10 million to other labor groups,
including $3.8 million to
 the AFL-CIO, union filings with the Labor Department show. The figures, as
of Dec. 31, also
 show the union had net assets of $17 million -- $98 million in assets
against $81 million in
 liabilities.

 But Teamster President Ron Carey said finances were not his chief concern.
``Our union is not
 a business,'' he said Tuesday. ``It doesn't depend upon profit. The money
should be used to take
 on the tough fights, what's happening to working people today.''

 The union also got encouragement from an ABC News poll released late
Tuesday showing 40
 percent of Americans backed the union in its fight to win more
higher-paying, full-time jobs.
 UPS won 30 percent support in the survey of 506 adults conducted Monday,
while 30 percent
 said they were neutral.

 ``I don't know if I can convince Americans,'' Kelly said in response to the
poll. ``What I'm trying
 to do is convince UPS people.''

 Kelly said Tuesday that 15,000 Teamsters could lose their jobs if the
strike lasts two weeks, but
 union officials dismissed it as a threat.

 The strike has already inconvenienced 26 percent of the people polled, but
64 percent opposed
 intervention by President Clinton. The company has repeatedly called for
Clinton to step in,
 while the union says the government should stay out of the strike.

 To intervene, Clinton would have to seek a court order under the
Taft-Hartley law, last used by
 President Jimmy Carter in 1978. Carter won a temporary court order to end a
three-month coal
 miners' strike, but it was largely ignored.

 Carter lost in court on March 17, 1978, when a federal judge refused to
extend the order, citing
 the absence of ``evidence of irreparable harm to the national health or
safety.''

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