Part of the Package

By MARLA DICKERSON

Aug. 2, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

For years, United Parcel Service has capitalized on the mystique of its drivers, those affable, spit-polished delivery folks who are as courteous as Clark Kent and as speedy as Superman.

Women fantasize about them, clothing makers have produced knockoffs of their crisp uniforms and customers wax enthusiastic about the dedicated men (and a few women) in brown.

“It’s nice to have one constant in life,” said Carol Johnson of Harbor Travel in Newport Beach, referring to her UPS delivery guy, known simply as Ken. “He’s normally here at 3 o’clock every day. You can practically set your watch by him.”

UPS has played up that wholesome image in its advertising, profiting handsomely in the process.

“Our drivers are considered our ambassadors,” UPS spokeswoman Jennifer Jiles said. “Those are the people our customers see every day and who they form relationships with.”

Now the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union is hoping to borrow a bit of that boy-next-door persona to help its members win a contract from UPS.

Whereas management could try to invoke images of hairy-knuckled Teamsters putting the muscle on the plucky delivery firm, the public has been conditioned to see Jimmy Stewart, not Jimmy Hoffa, when they contemplate industrious souls like Ken.

“Playing the mob card is going to be tough at UPS,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at UC Berkeley. “In the event of a strike, customers may well end up being annoyed with the company, not Ken. If he goes out on strike, they may figure he must have had a pretty good reason.”

The union is counting on that goodwill to strengthen its position at the bargaining table for its 185,000 members at UPS. Chuck Mack, the top Teamster official in the San Francisco Bay Area, says if the contract tussle turns into a prolonged strike, the union may tap the drivers’ image of dependability to gain valuable public support. The union called off a threatened walkout late Thursday night. Talks resumed Friday but were recessed with no agreement and no strike action; talks are expected to resume soon.

“UPS’ strength is its drivers,” Mack said. “They’d be very helpful in communicating our message to the public.”

How a passel of polyester-clad couriers became the darlings of the service industry is something of a cultural phenomenon. Movies, pop songs and a clutch of media stories have chronicled the phenomenon of women carrying a torch for their UPS drivers. (Most UPS drivers are men, but female couriers have garnered a following as well.)

Psychologists have likened these unlikely heartthrobs to a trimmer version of Santa Claus--amiable, nonthreatening types who arrive bearing packages before moving on down the road.

One thing is certain. In an oxymoronic service economy where top-flight service is a rarity, UPS delivers and customers are smitten.

Some of the credit goes to company management, which has never strayed from the strict edicts set down in 1907 by founder Jim Casey: courtesy, reliability, round-the-clock service and competitive rates.

In a world of casual Fridays, UPS still adheres to a stringent dress code and requires employees to keep its famed brown trucks spick-and-span. Employees are drilled to move with military precision and even instructed how to hold their packages and keys.

Some UPS workers have begun to chafe under such rigid work rules as competition has compelled the company to push for ever greater productivity. The union has complained that speedups, relentless pressure and heavier packages have resulted in injuries to its members. The firm also has recently come under fire for alleged racial bias in lawsuits filed against the company by African American employees.

UPS executives say worker safety is their highest priority and that they do not tolerate any form of discrimination in their ranks.

What customers see is a well-oiled machine that has continued to reinvent itself in the face of new competition. Still, it is the unionized front-line workers who embody this service miracle, generating plenty of loyalty in the process.

Not only is the public on a first-name basis with the UPS drivers, most working people identify with their position in this contract dispute, says Thomas Kochan, an industrial relations expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rather than obscure contract language or picayune rules, the fight essentially revolves around subcontracting and the union’s desire to add more full-time jobs with benefits.

Part-timers now make up more than half of the UPS work force. That’s something that has workers nationwide running scared.

“This is an issue that most Americans worry about every day,” Kochan said. “That’s why UPS is going to have a tough time painting this dispute as one of Big Labor taking on the company.”

Full-time drivers make a decent buck at $40,000-plus a year, but the public senses that they earn it, labor expert Shaiken said.

A lengthy strike that turns these cheerful ambassadors into angry militants could alienate customers and undermine the company’s can-do reputation, he added.

Management has expressed its intention to keep working in the event of a Teamster walkout. And some industry watchers predict replacement workers would scramble aboard the tightest ship in the shipping business.

Even some UPS drivers acknowledge that their seemingly devoted customers may prove fickle when the chips are down and they need to get their packages out.

“Everyone has this attitude where they totally respect us, and they know it’s a class company,” said Ruben Martinez, a 10-year UPS veteran who handles deliveries in downtown Los Angeles. Yet “my customers think I already make too much money, and they don’t know why I should fight for a contract.”

What’s more, some competitors aren’t so sure that the company holds any special allure with consumers.

Tanya Posey, a driver with Federal Express for 10 years, says clients rely on her company to send really important documents quickly, turning to UPS’ cheaper service for less-urgent shipments.

“You get what you pay for,” she said. “I wouldn’t say [UPS drivers] do a bad job, but we have better service and a better tracking system, and we’re more courteous to our customers.”

But some UPS loyalists say there’s no substitute for the boys in brown.

“We love Dale,” says San Diego businesswoman Camille Carroll, who heard his familiar brown truck rumbling past her office while speaking to a reporter by telephone. “Nobody can replace him.”

Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein also contributed to this report.

UPDATE ON CONTRACT TALKS: A6

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Special Deliveries

Quite a bit of lore surrounds United Parcel Service drivers. Some company trivia:

Several drivers were featured in People magazine’s May 1995 list of World’s Most Beautiful People.

Drivers delivered 30,000 pounds of animals for Disney’s “George of the Jungle.” UPS had to charter a special aircraft to transport Keriko the whale from Mexico City to Oregon for “Free 1466526828 *

U.S. distance runner Lynn Jennings ordered Kike sneakers every week just so she could see the UPS driver, who later become her husband, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Drivers have delivered babies and rescued people from burning buildings.

Florida driver has had women come to the door wearing a bikini, spandex or a towel. In Canada, a pair of women invited a driver to go skinny-dipping. *

UPS AT A GLANCE

Founded: AUg. 28, 1907, in Seattle.

Headquarters: Atlanta.

Employees: 388,000

1996 revenue: $22.4 billion

Delivery volume in 1996: 3.15 billion parcels and documents.

Service area: more than 200 countries and territories.

Fleet: 147,000 vehicles, 500 owned and chartered aircraft.

‘96 MARKET SHARE (includes air and ground shipments)

UPS: 63.1%

FedEx: 13.4%

U.S. Postal Service: 6.1%