President Clinton on Sunday urged the Teamsters union and the United Parcel Service to “redouble their efforts” to put an end to the 14-day strike by 185,000 workers that has hampered package delivery and later predicted that an agreement is near.
“It’s my gut feeling they’ll settle,” he said late Sunday after he was briefed on the status of the talks before arriving for vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. He held out his thumb and forefinger to indicate how close the two sides were. “They’re that close,” he said. “It’s a good deal. It will set a precedent for unions.”
But a Teamsters spokesman said the marathon talks recessed shortly before 11 p.m. CDT without an agreement being reached.
“The talks with UPS have recessed until noon on Monday. Reports that a settlement is near are not accurate. No agreement has been reached on any major issues,” said the spokesman.
Earlier Teamsters and UPS officials said they were beginning to make progress, as marathon talks continued in Washington at a hotel across the street from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters headquarters.
“There has been some movement,” Teamsters President Ron Carey said in explaining why he believed he was right not to put the company’s previous so-called “last and final” offer to his members for a vote as UPS executives had been urging.
“We are talking about the issues and that to me is progress–trying to see if we can find some areas of agreement and the talks are moving along,” Carey said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
UPS Chairman James Kelly, appearing on the same program, also sounded an optimistic, though cautious, note, saying that negotiators were discussing “dozens and dozens of issues” but it was unclear when an agreement could be reached.
“The fact that we’re continuing to talk is encouraging,” Kelly said, reiterating that the company would use replacement workers only as a last resort.
The walkout by drivers, loaders and sorters on Aug. 4 has crippled the nation’s largest package delivery firm to the tune of an estimated $300 million a week in lost revenues and has cost the Atlanta-based company more than a half-billion dollars so far.
The two sides had been meeting in face-to-face sessions with federal mediators and with Labor Secretary Alexis Herman since Thursday morning, taking only a few brief sleep breaks.
Meanwhile, a rally to support striking UPS workers drew a boisterous crowd to Teamsters union headquarters in Chicago on Sunday. More than 500 people packed the hall to back up UPS workers’ demands for full-time employment, higher wages and secured pension funds.
“Brothers and sisters, we’re here today to send a message that the entire labor movement is standing in support of the striking UPS workers,” said Tom Balanoff, president of the Service Employees International Union and chairman of Chicago Jobs for Justice.
