UPS and Teamsters reach agreement

WASHINGTON - The Teamsters and United Parcel Service have reached an agreement -- 16 days before the current contract expired. <br> <br> The union and UPS will release details of the new agreement Tuesday in Washington. <br> <br> Teamsters spokesman Bret Caldwell says he expects results from a union vote on the proposed contract by mid-August. <br> <br> A two-week strike in 1997 cost UPS $750 million, and both sides said they wanted to avoid a repeat. The company -- which controlled about 80 percent of the small package delivery market then -- was virtually crippled when 185,000 Teamsters went on strike with the support of UPS&#39;s two-thousand unionized pilots. <br> <br> The walkout involved the union&#39;s demand that more part-time workers be given full-time jobs. That again was a big issue this time around, and the Teamsters sought even more full-time jobs in this contract.