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February 23, 2000 10:46 AM, EST

United Parcel Service must create 2,000 new full-time jobs under a contract negotiated in 1997, even though its domestic package business declined following a strike by the Teamsters union, an arbitrator ruled.

The Atlanta-based package carrier had agreed to create 2,000 jobs a year over the life of a five-year contract that ended a 15-day strike in August 1997. The issue of part-time jobs was a major rallying point for the Teamsters during the strike. Union officials say 60% of UPS’s production personnel works on a part-time basis.

But UPS argued that the agreement was void for the first two years of the contract because its business had not returned to pre-strike levels. In October, after the company’s business had returned to previous levels, UPS and Teamsters officials began a program to create new jobs for the third year of the contract.

Arbitrator George Nicolau ruled that the decline in business and subsequent layoffs weren’t sufficient to trigger cancellation of the clause. He ordered the company to pay back wages to employees who fill the new jobs.

For the full story, see the Feb. 21 print edition of Transport Topics. .