Even in Small Ways, Area Feels Pinch of UPS Strike

In the island town of Avalon, the UPS strike almost halted the local newspaper’s flawless 83-year record of punctual delivery.

In Los Angeles, a truck mechanic can’t get to three broken-down buses and a Mack truck because his technical manuals are lost somewhere en route.

In Hollywood, an 18-year-old woman can’t get a Hebrew religious book she needs before she heads off to study at a university in Israel.

Their UPS woes may not be life-threatening, but they reflect the many aspects of Southlanders’ lives that the nationwide strike has disrupted.

The strike has even raised some concerns about public health. At a medical clinic in South Pasadena, Dr. Edward Thistlewaite couldn’t get the vaccines that UPS usually delivers from East Coast suppliers. He had to turn away about 20 children needing their mumps, measles and rubella shots.

“We’ve had three batches delivered by sub-suppliers that weren’t handled properly, so the vaccines were useless,” he said.

Friday, he finally received three days worth of vaccines, but said that it would be the last delivery for some time unless the strike ends soon. “We sort of live from hand to mouth,” Thistlewaite said.

The strike has hit particularly hard in rural areas that rely more heavily on UPS. In Avalon, tourist shops--the backbone of Catalina’s economy--have been running painfully low on supplies.

Barbara Sherman, owner of the only fishing tackle store in town, endured 11 days with no fishing licenses to sell. The $3,000 in permits that she ordered weeks ago finally arrived Friday by UPS.

“People couldn’t fish without a license,” she said. “If they were, they were doing it illegally.”

Fishing is one of the prime attractions on the island, she added, and August is the height of the season.

*

Sherri Walker, publisher of the weekly Catalina Islander, usually uses UPS to send her paper to a press in San Diego County to be printed. The day before the newspapers were supposed to arrive on the doorsteps, Federal Express called to tell her that her original copy was still at a processing plant in Oakland and wouldn’t make it to the presses.

Hastily pasting together another original and sending it off on a passenger boat, it got to the printers and the papers were flown back to the island for delivery.

Like Walker, many UPS customers managed to cope by spending a little extra money and enduring a lot of inconvenience. At Tamara’s bridal shop in West Los Angeles, owner Jackie Praw has been hustling back and forth to air freight terminals and the post office, but hasn’t missed a wedding.

“My neck went out on me three days ago due to the stress,” Praw said.

Thursday, she helped a panicked bride whose special-ordered dress was lost in UPS limbo. “She had to buy a second dress,” Praw said.

At the Valley Scout Shop in Van Nuys, store manager Jesse Duran has had to trek to Kern County to deliver leather and wood craft supplies to a Scout camp.

But some people just couldn’t make do.

Mechanic Daniel Toro cannot get the technical books he needs to diagnose what’s wrong with the Mack truck parked in his auto yard. He suspects that a bent rod is causing engine problems, but he doesn’t want to open it up until he has the manual in his hands.

“It’s hard to guess what the problem is,” Toro said. “The dealer has got books, but they won’t even let me take a look at them.”

Sarah Union, 18, was told by a book supplier in New York that it could not deliver a copy of the Alshich. But she needs the book to study before she attends a Hebrew University in Jerusalem in September.

And at Knott’s Berry Farm, managers found a UPS order for nearly a thousand vampire and slime-covered monster suits trapped in the backlog. The amusement park had to reorder the costumes to make sure its “Halloween Haunt” will be frightening enough for the 300,000 teenagers expected to attend.