Nine days into a crippling labour strike, the confrontation between American trucking giant UPS and the Teamsters union is taking on bitter overtones.
UPS, which is facing the prospect of losing tens of millions of dollars daily because of the strike, is threatening to cut 15,000 full-time jobs by the end of the week. The longer this goes on, the fewer jobs we will have, company CEO James Kelly said in television interviews on Tuesday.
This is intimidation, retorted Teamsters president Ron Carey at a press briefing later in the day. Carey, vowing that the union would not give in without winning its demands, announced that umbrella trade union group AFL-CIO would chip in to ensure that striking workers were guaranteed $55 a week in compensation. The Teamsters union, by itself, would have been hard pressed to provide the $10 million required each week to fund the striking workers.
The confrontation between the two sides hardened visibly after several days of attempts to mediate provided no breakthroughs.
The UPS management inserted full-page advertisements in several newspapers nationwide on Tuesday, proclaiming the real issue behind the strike to be the companys pension plan, not the demand to increase full-time jobs. UPS has created more than 46,000 new jobs over the last four years, the ad said, underscoring the comprehensive benefits that accompany even part time jobs with the company.
The real issue is the pension fund. Teamsters leaders do not like the fact that the new fund would take billions of dollars in pension funds out of their control. Union leaders contest that claim.
The labour leaders have sought to cast the strike as a battle for Americas future, fighting against what is perceived as an increase in the countrys part time labour force.
In fact, that perception may be skewed.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that as many as 76 percent of all part time workers surveyed recently said that they did not want full-time jobs. UPS itself is maintaining that a large part of its part-time workforce is composed of college students, home-makers, and people who prefer flexible work arrangements.
Union members dont always see it that way, complaining that years of part-time work can often lead nowhere. Said a Teamsters striker, You cant pay a full-time mortgage with a part-time job.
Even as both sides appear ready to hunker down for a long fight, the White House is still disinclined to step in. Labour Secretary Alexis Herman is attempting to get both sides back to the negotiating table, but President Bill Clinton is still reluctant to get involved in a potentially messy conflict.
Meanwhile, the real losers are small retailers who were heavily dependent on UPS. American malls are full of stores that have prominently placed signs apologising for delays in merchandise shipments.
Among the worst affected are book publishers, leading to the prospect of schools reopening in early September without textbooks.
