Labor Secretary Calls For Talks In Ups Standoff Herman Urges Both Sides To Return To Bargaining Table Again
Labor Secretary Alexis Herman met with both sides in the 8-day-old Teamsters strike against UPS on Monday as the package delivery giant and small businesses stepped up calls for government intervention.
Meanwhile, a United Parcel Service truck plunged off a Tennessee highway ramp, killing a manager at the wheel. Picketers said their lines were holding, and the AFL-CIO reaffirmed its support for the strike.
Herman’s session with leaders of the union and the company was aimed at getting them back to the bargaining table, and the White House maintained that ordering an end to the strike would be inappropriate.
“We can’t solve the labor-management conflicts between the parties,” said White House spokesman Mike McCurry.
Emerging from his meeting with Herman, Teamsters President Ron Carey said he asked her to urge the company to bargain on the union’s key issues of full-time jobs, subcontracting and increased wages.
“What has to happen here is that the company has to get the message that the government is not going to intervene on their behalf,” Carey said. “They’ve been playing games. They haven’t been serious.”
UPS’ chief negotiator David Murray, leaving a meeting with Herman that lasted more than two hours, thanked her for taking a personal interest in the standoff.
“However, we still believe the correct solution to this is for the Teamsters to put our people back to work and our offer out for a vote,” Murray said.
UPS stuck to that message on Monday, saying that union bosses were preventing members from voting on a contract that would increase employee’s pension benefits.
In a letter designed to foment pressure for White House intervention, the company sent a letter to members of Congress detailing its offer and urging an end to the strike.
“The disruption and hardships imposed by Teamster leadership on the American people, small businesses and our country’s economy should never have happened and could stop tomorrow,” said the letter.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich responded quickly, urging President Clinton to ask the Teamsters to put the “last best offer of UPS management” to a vote of the rank and file.
“I urge you to use every effort to help resolve this dispute as quickly as possible,” Gingrich said, although he noted he wouldn’t advocate congressional action in the strike.
Striking UPS workers in Atlanta said they hadn’t seen signs of any dissension among their ranks, and that they were opposed to the company’s offer.
“The company is pressuring employees to call their union hall to vote individually,” said Lester Hembree, a UPS driver who has been with the company for 27 years.
UPS has estimated 7,000 union members crossed picket lines, a number the Teamsters say is greatly exaggerated.
Meanwhile, police in Miami have arrested four suspects and are searching for two others in connection with the stabbing of a UPS driver who crossed the picket line.
National Small Businesses United, a Washington-based policy group representing some 65,000 small businesses, said the strike is taking a high toll.
“Businesses are literally starving out there,” NSBU President Todd McCracken said. “Something has to be done.”