ATLANTA United Parcel Service's brown trucks rolled on todayafter negotiations between the delivery service giant and theTeamsters union extended past a strike deadline. The union promisednot to walk out as long as talks were progressing.
The all-night bargaining session in Washington recessed about5:40 a.m. so negotiators could get some rest. The talks resumedaround 1:40 p.m.
Teamsters President Ron Carey promised that workers would stayon the job unless talks break down, saying: "If there is anopportunity to settle this, that's what it's all about."
Carey declined to discuss details, but when asked about thechances of a week-long strike at this point, he replied, "I thinkwe're beyond that now."
UPS chief James Kelly was last to arrive for the afternoontalks, and he declined to comment.
Earlier, the company said that, while it was operating on normalschedules, some customers were taking their business elsewhere. Thecompany has suspended service guarantees because of the laboruncertainty.
"There's no question that we have had a decrease in volume,most noticeable today," spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said.
The company, which normally ships 12 million parcels anddocuments a day, said it began losing business in the days leading upto the strike deadline. Rosenberg didn't have specific losses, otherto say the volume was "hundreds of thousands of packages lighter."
"Clearly, it's going to start cutting into their business," JohnPincavage, an analyst for Dillon, Read in New York, said today."Shippers need certainty."
He said UPS is such a dominant part of the industry that mostlosses should be temporary. But if UPS is hit by a lengthy walkout,"what happens is that customers will find different ways to dothings," Pincavage said. "In some instances, those will becomepermanent."
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