The Teamsters claim that employees "won" major economic gains by their strike against United Parcel Service last year; but analysts say the result has been fewer jobs.

A major issue leading to the strike was the demand by the union that UPS create more full-time jobs that could be filled by part-time workers. However, many part-time UPS employees are college students, and management said they didn't want full-time UPS jobs.

• In July 1998 UPS notified the Teamsters Union it would be unable to create the 2,000 new full-time jobs called for in the first year of the contract, since UPS volume is down more than 460,000 packages.

• Today, UPS employs 16,400 fewer persons than it did one year ago, including 10,000 union jobs.

• And the number of part-time employees at the end of May 1998 was 15,000 less than May 1997.

Furthermore, compared to UPS's final offer before the strike, under the post-strike agreement part-time employees will earn less over the entire five years of the contract, and full-time employees will have gains only in the final year (see figure). The major reason economic losses for Teamsters workers were so high was that the final settlement excluded two large profit-sharing bonuses the company offered workers.