UPS CFO: Co Confident In Inking Teamsters Pact By Year End

[Omaha Steve]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200707240923DOWJONESDJONLINE000321_FORTUNE5.htm

DETROIT -(Dow Jones)- United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) Chief Financial Officer Scott Davis said Tuesday the company remains confident that it can ink a new labor deal with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters by the end of 2007.

UPS executives, speaking during a conference call, said that pensions remain a "complex issue" in the talks, but said the Atlanta package-delivery company and its union are "working very hard on getting the contract done in 2007."

Contract talks with the Teamsters union began in the second quarter. The Teamsters represent nearly 250,000 workers at UPS, and the union is trying to organize more workers in the UPS Freight unit who were added when UPS acquired Overnite Corp. in August 2005.

In May, Teamsters President James Hoffa said the two sides were making " tremendous progress on negotiations," but the talks were temporarily recessed earlier in July, according to reports, due to the company's need for more information on pension funds that cover UPS workers.

-By John D. Stoll, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; john.stoll@ dowjones.com