Ups Postpones Decision On Layoffs

United Parcel Service deliveries are near normal, but the company said Friday the volume might be pent-up demand from the strike and no decision will be made until next week on whether to lay off employees.

The company said it was expecting to pick up 11 million packages Friday and deliver 12.2 million. UPS, the nation’s largest shipping company, delivered 12 million packages a day before the strike.

But company spokesman Norman Black said pickups were trailing off as the backlog is cleared, while deliveries were expected “to skyrocket in the next three or four days.”

UPS projected it would deliver 12.2 million packages Thursday, but delivered only 11.6 million. UPS officials said no decision on layoffs can be made until a post-strike surge in backlogged deliveries levels off.

UPS was virtually crippled when 185,000 Teamsters went on strike Aug. 4 for 15 days with support from the company’s 2,000 unionized pilots.