AFL-CIO launches TV ads to bolster union membership 05:08 p.m Aug 11, 1997 Eastern WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The AFL-CIO Monday said it will launch a $5 million media blitz to replenish the ranks of organized labor, just as the Teamsters union is engaged in what is being described as the biggest strike in 25 years. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the 13-million member labor organization will broadcast television ads initially in five cities. The ads put a positive spin on union membership. The ads, developed before the Teamsters strike at United Parcel Service, show union members praising the benefits of belonging to the union. ``This is not a political message. This campaign reflects a broad new commitment to reach out and build our membership, to gain greater strength for American working families,'' Sweeney told a news conference. Union membership as a percent of the overall work force has been declining steadily for years. Last year 14.9 percent of workers belonged to a union, down from 23.8 percent in 1977. The ads initially will be aired in Baltimore, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Seattle and St. Louis, and union officials expect they eventually will be run in other cities as well. ``There is no better moment to launch this campaign,'' said Sweeney, adding that unions ``have a wonderful story to tell, but we haven't been telling it.'' The campaign comes amid signs the eight-day-old Teamster strike was becoming violent. Miami police said they charged three striking UPS drivers with attempted murder for allegedly attacking a UPS driver with an icepick as he made deliveries. The AFL-CIO ads portray positive impages. They show union members with co-workers and relatives explaining how being a member of a union helps them care for their families, uphold professional standards at work and gain a voice on the job. Sweeney said the Teamsters strike ``is showing how unions are fighting back. It's showing how they're angry over the wage and wealth gap -- the fact that their wages haven't kept up with the standard of living over the past 20 years.'' U.S. mediator John Calhoun Wells has described the strike as the ``biggest'' in the United States in the past 25 years. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- UPS, Teamsters meet Herman, driver dies in Tenn. 07:55 p.m Aug 11, 1997 Eastern By David Lawsky WASHINGTON (Reuter) - United Parcel Service and Teamsters union representatives met with Labor Secretary Alexis Herman Monday, but there was little sign of a break in the eight-day-old strike. As the negotiations took place, a UPS driver died when his truck toppled off a freeway ramp in Nashville, Tenn. In Miami, police said they had charged four UPS workers with attacking a fifth who was working in defiance of the strike. Herman called the two sides in after talks ended abruptly Saturday. ``I made it clear that everyone involved must show greater flexibility and a willingness to compromise,'' Herman said, describing the meetings as serious but offering no indication of progress. Teamsters President Ron Carey told reporters after his meeting with Herman that he was ready to go back to the bargaining table, but only for serious negotiations. ``I'm not going to spend any more time out there chit-chatting,'' Carey said. On Saturday, Carey said further talks would be fruitless because UPS was unwilling to improve its contract offer. UPS negotiator Dave Murray said the company was not changing its offer despite Herman's calls for flexibility. ``We still believe that the correct solution to this is for the Teamsters to put our people back to work and send our offer out for a vote,'' Murray said. UPS called a news conference for 2 p.m. Tuesday in Washington to discuss the strike. UPS wrote to all Congress members Monday, asking them to urge the White House to end the strike. But White House spokesman Mike McCurry told reporters that while the strike was a concern, the conditions for federal intervention under the Taft-Hartley law had not yet been met. ``The standard in the statute hasn't changed in the last week -- it's 'imperil the national health and safety' -- and we monitor the strike conditions and the economic conditions to see if that standard has been met,'' McCurry said. ``So far it has not.'' In Nashville, a UPS driver was killed when his tractor-trailer toppled off a freeway ramp and fell onto busy Interstate 65. The company said the man was a long-time UPS driver-trainer who was substituting for a regular driver because of the strike. Miami police said they charged four striking UPS drivers in connection with an attack on another UPS driver with an ice pick as he was making deliveries. Police said Roderick Carter, working in defiance of the strike, was attacked Thursday when his UPS truck stopped at a traffic light. Angel Mielgo, 30; Orestes Espinosa, 30; and Benigno Rojas, 28, were charged with attempted murder. Adran Paez, 25, was charged with aggravated battery. ``All are UPS workers,'' police spokeswoman Nina Fonticiella said. ``This is the only incident we've had like this, but tension is mounting.'' Teamsters spokeswoman Nancy Stella said the union did not know the details but said: ``We are urging our locals to refrain from violence.'' UPS normally handles 12 million packages a day. Federal mediator John Calhoun Wells has described the strike as the biggest in the United States in the past 25 years. Atlanta-based UPS, which before the strike delivered about 80 percent of all packages shipped by ground nationwide, said it wanted to avoid hiring replacement workers but declined to rule out such a move. Other package carriers have leaped into the gap left by the strike. UPS spokesman Ken Sternad said analysts' estimates that the company had lost $300 million last week were ``not inappropriate.'' Sternad said the strike damage was harder to quantify the longer it went on. The company was losing customers to competitors and some would be lost forever. Economists said a protracted strike by United Parcel Service workers was certain to hurt the economy and might help persuade the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady despite recent signs of accelerating growth. ``If the strike were still under way (and) the Fed took action, it would pile on what's already a bad situation,'' said Everett Ehrlich, president of consultancy ESC Co. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the Teamsters has not yet asked the labor federation for financial support. ``We'll wait for the request. But we will support them in every way we possibly can. And it's safe to say that that includes financial resources,'' he said. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- Labor Sec To UPS: Don't Replace Strikers 06:56 a.m. Aug 11, 1997 Eastern By Jim Wolf WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Labor Secretary Alexis Herman warned against any move by United Parcel Service to hire substitutes for striking members of the Teamsters Union and urged the two sides to resume talks. With no end in sight to the weeklong walkout that has paralyzed the nation's biggest package delivery company, Herman urged both sides to refrain from action that would escalate the dispute. ``I believe hiring replacement workers does contribute to that escalation,'' Herman said on the CNN program ``Late Edition.'' Executives of Atlanta-based UPS, which before the strike delivered about 80 percent of all packages shipped by ground nationwide, said they wanted to avoid hiring replacement workers but declined to rule out such a move. ``The last thing we want to do, the last thing I want to do, is replace UPS workers,'' Chief Executive Officer James Kelly, said on the CBS program ``Face the Nation.'' But he left open the possibility, saying that UPS was losing ``hundreds of millions of dollars a week.'' Since the strike by 185,000 Teamsters started last Monday, the company has relied on management personnel to operate at greatly reduced levels. Kelly said he saw a role for President Clinton, who can suspend for 30 days a strike that creates an economic emergency. In another development, the Wall Street Journal reported that UPS may face a strike by its pilots union if a new contract is not reached in negotiations set to resume in a few weeks. The newspaper said in its electronic edition Monday that the pilots voted this spring to authorize a strike if a new contract is not reached. Industry analysts said that if a pilots strike occurs, the impact on UPS' consumer confidence would be profound. UPS has already lost some $300 million as a result of the Teamsters strike, analysts told the paper. UPS declined to comment on the possibility of labor problems with its pilots, the paper said. UPS normally handles 12 million packages a day. A federal mediator said Saturday that the strike was the ``biggest'' in the United States in the past 25 years. The U.S. Postal Service said the strike was swelling its own business to Christmas-season levels and added rare Sunday deliveries of packages in some spots to cope with the backlog. ``It's like Christmas in August when you look at the volume of parcels that are coming our way,'' said Mark Saunder, a postal service spokesman. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin defended the administration's refusal to heed a request from UPS and others that he seek an injunction under the Taft-Hartley Act to halt the strike on emergency grounds. ``I think we're doing exactly the right thing, which is working with the parties, trying to keep them at the table and working together to get this resovled between themselves,'' Rubin said on the ABC program ``This Week.'' Herman said she would contact both Kelly and Ronald Carey, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to urge them to resume talks broken off Saturday. ``I am going to ask them to work harder, to redouble their efforts to settle their differences,'' she said. The Teamsters struck after company and union negotiators failed to reach a contract to replace the one that expired July 30. In breaking off talks on Saturday, the two sides made clear they were bracing for a long strike. Dave Murray, the chief UPS negotiator, said Sunday that Teamsters ``in the thousands'' were crossing picket lines to return to work, a claim that Carey denied. Asked about the possibility of hiring replacement workers, Murray said on CNN that the company did not wish to do so but added: ``That decision has not been made.'' Both Kelly and Carey said they were willing to resume bargaining if the other was prepared to make concessions, but neither showed any willingness in public to budge. ``I see this as a strike that the company has forced,'' Carey said on CNN. ``It makes no sense for the union to sit in a room and negotiate against itself.'' The two sides could not even agree on what the chief stumbling block was to reaching a new contract. UPS officials say it was a dispute over pensions, with the company pushing to set up a new pension plan and pull out of the Teamsters' multi-employer plan. But the union has played up the company's refusal to turn more part-time jobs into full-time positions. Carey said he did not want Clinton to intervene. ``Today we hear Jim Kelly scream out about 'yes, get the president involved.' Yet, when the government fines UPS for all sorts of ... health and safety violations, we hear the company saying 'too much government, too much bureaucracy,''' Carey said.'' ``You can't have it both ways,'' he added. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
