After failing to reach an agreement, UPS and Independent Pilots Association are taking a break from formal contract talks after 32 months of increasingly tough negotiations.
The National Mediation Board ordered the recess in the talks June 23 following two weeks of negotiations in Washington that failed to produce an agreement.
The recess allows both sides "to go back and review the proposals that they have on the table and start looking at where they can make some shifts or changes … and prepare … for that next step when the NMB calls them back," said UPS spokesman Mark Giuffre.
The recess is indefinite, however. "There is no date … or timeline" for a restart, said IPA President Tom Nicholson.
"It could be three months, a year or even two years; it is up to the mediator," Giuffre said.
The NMB will probably wait until both parties indicate "they are willing to sit down in earnest to thrash things out," Nicholson said.
As the break begins, the two sides agree they have made good progress on the difficult issues of scope and scheduling but remain divided on compensation, pension and health-care issues.
"Pension is probably number one on our list right now," Nicholson said. "We don't want to end up like the employees at Enron or United Airlines."
The recess has not translated into a ceasefire, however.
Immediately after the last session broke up, the union threw down the gauntlet.
"We are going to give UPS until the end of the month to pull together its last, best and final contract offer," Nicholson said. "If it is worthy, we will put it out there for a vote from the membership; if it is not and … (the company) says it has other things to talk about then let's get back in mediation."
However, if the company does nothing, "the IPA will pull together its highlights of UPS's final offers on the five open articles, (scope, scheduling, pension, compensation and benefits), and send that out to our pilots for a vote."
At the same time, the union will also ask the members' "permission to get authorization for a release from the national mediation for a 30-day cooling off (period)" and eventually a strike vote.
"These talks are in a logjam, we need for our pilots to weigh-in with a vote to let UPS know that what they're offering won't fly with our crewmembers," Nicholson said.
"We are going to focus our attention on the … (talks themselves). We are still negotiating … and the union push for a last best offer is just more rhetoric to try to stir things up," Giuffre said.
"We have what we think is a strong offer on the table … it includes pay increases and upgrades to pension, healthcare, vacation rules and scheduling rules," he said.
"We are waiting for that exchange, like in any negotiation, those counterproposals."
While in the recess, "everything is status quo - the pilots will continue to work under their current contract," Giuffre said.
If in time, the NMB decides there has been no movement they can proffer arbitration under which both sides could agree to accept an arbitrated agreement.
"If either side says no to arbitration … the next step will be a potential 30-day cooling off period" which would "start a count down to potential work action," he said.
After that, there is still the possibility that the president and Congress could intervene.
Ed McKenna
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