File spoon-archives/aut-op-sy.archive/aut-op-sy_1997/aut-op-sy.9708, message 70


From: Curtis Price <cansv-AT-igc.apc.org>
Date:          Mon, 11 Aug 1997 15:42:26 +0000
Subject: AUT: (Fwd) Colorado Teamsters' Anger on the Rise in UPS Strike


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Mon, 11 Aug 1997 07:46:28 -0700
From:          NewsHound <NewsHound-AT-hound.com>

Reply-to:      NewsHound-AT-hound.com
Subject:       Colorado Teamsters' Anger on the Rise in UPS Strike



NewsHound article from "STRIKES" hound, score "79."



Colorado Teamsters' Anger on the Rise in UPS >>Strike<<

BY LOU GONZALES, THE GAZETTE, COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News

Aug. 9--As the UPS >>strike<< continued into its fifth day, what a local
Teamster leader had called a ``gentleman's >>strike<<'' began to take on a
surly tone Friday.

Supervisors handing out checks from the back of a UPS truck at the United
Parcel Service parking lot on Emory Circle griped out loud about how much
the pay envelopes contained.

The paychecks were the last >>workers<< will see for the duration of the
>>strike<<.

``It says what's wrong with society when you give a guy a $900 paycheck and
he still goes on >>strike<<,'' groused district manager Steve Waite to
nobody in particular.

``I worked 17 hours overtime to earn my money,'' a trucker shot back.

Earlier this week, Local 17 steward Don Fleischauer had confidently
predicted that the work stoppage would be a ``gentleman's >>strike<<,'' but
Teamsters were struggling to hold their anger on the picket line in front
of the UPS building.

Car radios in the full parking lots surrounding the UPS property were tuned
to Denver and Colorado Springs talk shows. Reactions were bitter when the
crowd heard UPS spokesmen saying strikers didn't understand the company's
proposals nor were being well served by union officials.

One union steward took a straw poll asking each >>worker<< if he wanted to
go with the UPS offer. Only three of several dozen said yes, one wasn't
sure, and the rest said no. Some crumpled a letter from district manager
Jim Ziernicki that was handed out with the checks and threw it on the
ground or in a nearby trash can.

Danielle Jessop, a >>strike<< placard hanging from a string around her
neck, tried to calm fellow >>workers<<. Her three-hour shift on the picket
line was over, but she stayed anyway.

``I'm just trying to keep everyone cool, keep everyone calm,'' Jessop said
as she walked the line with her 4-year-old daughter, Alexandra.''

Most on the line said they were >>striking<< because UPS is hiring 80
percent part-time >>workers<< -- a trend the union says undermines a
>>worker<<'s chance to move up into full-time jobs with better benefits.

But some say the part-time issue, while it has been a successful ploy by
Teamsters officials to create a sense of solidarity among strikers, is not
the real reason behind the >>strike<<.

UPS has also proposed to pull out of the Teamsters multi-business pension
plan.

``We're paying into a pension fund for other Teamsters that don't work for
UPS,'' said Ziernicki during a telephone interview.

What UPS wants is its own in-house pension fund, one that it says will add
50 percent to a >>worker<<'s retirement take-home pay. But that offer isn't
tempting to Jessop, who has faced layoffs from two companies that have
folded.

``I don't have much trust for private company pension funds,'' Jessop said.

In the meantime, negotiations remained unproductive in Washington, D.C.

Teamsters president Ron Carey promised to ``dig'' in, while UPS Chief
Executive James P. Kelly stuck by the company's pre-strike ``last, best and
final offer.''

On the picket line, Jessop offered a statement to the negotiators.

``I just hope they remember us little guys,'' she said. ``I want to tell
Mr. Carey that while I understand what he's fighting for, I hope he keeps
me in mind.''

-----

ON THE INTERNET:

Visit GT Online, the World Wide Web site of The Gazette, at
http://www.usa.net/gazette

-----



(c) 1997, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Distributed by
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News.



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