Ups, Union Starting To Rebuild But Impact From 15-Day Strike Could Linger Long After Picket Lines Disappear

After more than two weeks of postal pandemonium, the nation’s package delivery system may soon begin to snap back into place.

“We’re hoping to begin to pick up customers (today) and start rebuilding UPS,” said Al Rapp, spokesman for UPS in Seattle.

Though the United Parcel Service strike may be over and 185,000 Teamsters nationwide - including 650 in Eastern Washington and North Idaho - start their return to work today, things may never be the same.

Some say this is a peak moment for labor that will affect future contract negotiations, while others claim that everyone lost in this economic war between labor and big business.

Local UPS customers who depended on the shipping giant are still smarting. Some who found alternative shippers may never go back to previous shipping levels at UPS. The company had 80 percent of the package delivery market nationwide before the strike. No one is expecting it to regain that market share immediately. “Some customers have taken their volume and just moved it to our competitors,” said Rapp. “Others have signed an agreement (with other delivery services). Still, we hope to slowly gain our volume back.”

UPS customers will welcome the five-year term of the contract now awaiting Teamster ratification.

“It certainly provides our customers with some assurance of reliability,” said Rapp. “We’ve never had a five-year contract in our history. It has always been three years, though in 1993 it was four years.”

At a time when union membership is down, the Teamsters couldn’t have picked a better stand than the labor contract with the world’s largest parcel delivery service, local labor experts say.

“The factors favored the union,” said one professor who asked to be identified only as a labor law expert at Gonzaga Law School. The strike hurt small businesses, cost UPS hundreds of millions of dollars, covered huge issues and touched nearly every American, the GU instructor said.

“There are only a few critical industries where labor affects the national economy so much,” the law expert said. “It gave labor the advan tage.”

Because of that, this strike got more national attention than most. Labor officials say the result of this strike will be a resounding change in labor contract negotiations.

“It will probably set the precedent in labor throughout the United States for years to come,” said Rick Stone, spokesman for Teamsters Union local 690, which represents area UPS workers. “It says something about labor - that changes were needed.”

John Leinen, Spokane Labor Council secretary/treasurer, agreed with Stone, adding that the tide may turn for labor negotiations in other industries. “I think this could be the rallying point for change,” Leinen said.

But the GU professor disagreed. “The unique factors labor had on its side here might not show in other industries,” he said. It won’t be a hallmark example for all times, he said.

Impacts on labor in Eastern Washington and North Idaho are uncertain.

“No one really knows what it’s going to do in Spokane,” Leinen said. “Here it wasn’t a major strike only affecting 500 employees,” he said. “It was a small strike that was tied to a big organization.”

For Spokane and North Idaho businesses the apparent end of the strike brought, in a word, relief. While many found ways to weather the past two weeks, they’re still stinging from slowed deliveries.

“It was a headache,” said Cindy Grey, who orders medicines and supplies for the Garland Animal Clinic in Spokane. “It really affected us. Some of our supplies just didn’t go out and an order I placed two weeks ago just came in today.”

Mountain Gear, which has a recreational gear mail-order business, was significantly strained by the strike.

“I saw what I predict was a 40 percent downturn in orders,” said owner Paul Fish. The company used Federal Express and the post office smoothly for deliveries, but when the strike started, orders dropped as Mountain Gear’s customers shied away, perhaps expecting shipping difficulties.

Lord’s Jewelers in Coeur d’Alene was hardly touched. Nearly all of its orders shipped via UPS from a supplier in Louisiana came in on time, said owner Dorothy Blaskovich. “One or two orders were maybe a day late, but it didn’t interrupt our work to amount to anything.”

Most people contacted believe UPS will eventually regain its customers. “It’s tough finding someone else to do it as fast and efficiently,” said Joe Bruce, owner of Columbia-Cycle Craft and Hobby in Spokane. He uses UPS to ship larger packages.

Still, companies like Mountain Gear, which were hurt by the strike, are cautious about getting caught again.

“UPS will get back a chunk of our business, but they won’t get back all of it,” said Fish.

, DataTimes