UPS and pilots union quicken pace of bargaining

United Parcel Service Inc. and a union for 2,500 pilots at the company’s airfreight operations have stepped up the pace of bargaining on a revised labor agreement, according to UPS and the union.

Both UPS, the world’s biggest package carrier which struck a six-year contract in 2002 with the Teamsters union covering drivers, and the Independent Pilots Association have reported progress in the talks on secondary matters.

Wages and pensions for the pilots are among major issues yet to be taken up. In March, UPS and the pilots association agreed to push back to July 1 a deadline for seeking federal mediation to continue the current talks.

“The talks are going very well,” said Mark Giuffre, spokesman for UPS air operations, whose 269 aircraft constitute the world’s 11th largest airline.

He declined to discuss specifics of the talks.

The talks, which sometimes include federal mediators as observers, are using interest-based bargaining, a set of negotiating techniques meant to discourage confrontations like those in 1998 between FedEx Corp and its pilots.

A spokesman for the Independent Pilots Association, which is based in Louisville, Kentucky, along with the UPS air operations, also declined to give details about the talks, but said the sides were now meeting weekly. They had been meeting every other week.

The pilots group, which an industry source speculated was likely seeking an overhaul of pilot scheduling at UPS, said in an Internet posting that some minor agreements in principle had been reached last week.

Scheduling, which the pilots association said was on the agenda for this week’s talks, covers such matters as the assignment of routes, days off and rest periods between flights.

The pilots, who are a relatively small but key group among UPS worldwide staff of 357,000, continue to work under the terms of the old contract that expired last year.

Archrival transport group FedEx recently opened talks with another pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association, on revising a contract covering some 4,300 pilots flying its aircraft, according to the company.

“We’re certainly happy with the pace of the talks,” said FedEx spokeswoman Kristin Krause, adding that FedEx and ALPA had booked bargaining sessions throughout 2004.

In 1998, in talks between FedEx and what is its only unionized labor group, the pilots, and the Memphis, Tennessee, company exchanged threats of a work stoppage and replacements before an agreement was reached.

A spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association was not immediately available.