By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Pickets today at UPS' Lagoon Drive facility.
UPS strike
disrupts isle service
A jet freighter is grounded
From staff and wire reports
at Honolulu AirportA nationwide Teamsters strike against United Parcel Service has put hundreds of local workers on the picket line, sent isle businesses scrambling to make arrangements and left a UPS Boeing 767 sitting empty at Honolulu Airport. As Hawaii Teamsters Local 996 pickets lined the street outside the UPS facility on Lagoon Drive alongside Honolulu Airport, the company said it is not accepting any outgoing packages and is doing its best to deliver those that came in on the flight at 9:30 p.m. yesterday.
UPS workers here walked out at 6:01 p.m. yesterday as their union called a strike of more than 185,000 Teamsters nationwide.
Andre A. Dressler and Peter C. Anderson, two of nine UPS pilots in town who belong to the Independent Pilots Association, were on the picket line and said they support the pickets.
"We hope sense will prevail," Dressler said.
Company officials said UPS is using management and nonunion personnel to try to move out to Hawaii customers the goods that have arrived.
Although company officials are hoping to service all packages currently in the system, not all from last night's flight will be delivered today, said Lance Hirokawa, human resources manager. However, pharmaceutical and hospital supplies were being given top priority.
Hirokawa said UPS usually has three flights a day into Hawaii but now expects only one flight to come in through the next several days.
"It's an unfair labor practice strike," said Local 996 president Mel Kahele shortly after the strike began.
"The company apparently has not bargained with faith. What we're expecting is a fair package that will include wages, pension increases, safety and health and welfare," Kahele said.
One major sticking point in negotiations was the union's demand that the company cut back on hiring subcontractors rather than paying employees the current hourly rate, the union said.
The U.S. Postal Service and UPS' commercial competitors such as Federal Express, Airborne Express and DHL Worldwide Express were scrambling to handle the overload.
The Postal Service had not experienced a big increase at its Honolulu Airport hub this morning but was expecting that to change, said a spokeswoman, Felice Broglio.
"So far what we're trying to do is make contact with those with large mails," she said. The Postal Service set up a special telephone number, 423-3955, to help big users of UPS who need to switch to the mail.
Summer business is normally not strong and the commercial carriers don't dominate the market as much here as they do on the mainland, and that will help, Broglio said.
Meanwhile, in Washington, President Clinton told reporters this morning that while UPS is "very important" to the country, he would not be getting involved in the strike.
"I still think the parties ought to go back to the table," he said.
"I hope they'll go back to the table, but at this time I don't think any further action by me is appropriate."
Pay, pensions and the full schedules worked by "part-time" employees are the main sticking points between United Parcel Service and the Teamsters, who represent nearly two-thirds of UPS' 302,000 U.S. employees.
"It's imperative that we take a stand now, or we won't have a future," said Connie McArthur, a 19-year employee picketing a UPS distribution center in Seattle.
"We've got the part-timers working double and triple shifts, and they're still called part-timers."
It was difficult to gauge the strike's immediate effect, though UPS said just the threat of the strike had cost the company 1 million packages on Friday -- about 8 percent of its daily business. Current national figures were not immediately available.
UPS workers were ready to strike Thursday night at midnight when their four-year contract expired, but union leaders in Washington kept them on the job while talks continued. Negotiators made a last-ditch effort last night.
The union's main demands are limits on subcontracting and more full-time jobs.
Nearly two-thirds of the Teamsters at UPS are part-timers.
But UPS says it has three- to four-hour busy periods in the morning and afternoon and that it wouldn't make sense to guarantee employees a full-time job.
