What the settlement portends for the US labor movement as a whole remains unclear. On the one hand, say experts, the UPS settlement could help organizers argue that unions are still important forces in the Information Age. With the backing of the AFL-CIO's aggressive new leader, John Sweeney, Teamsters leader Ron Carey had rhetorically elevated the strike to the most important test of labor strength in decades. N.Y. But whether boldness will translate to new members is less clear. Decades of declining membership have left trade unions representing only 10 percent of the private US work force.
Unions remain desperate to organize such service industries as computer software.
But the competitive nature of modern business means corporations will bitterly fight organizing attempts as they struggle to match labor costs with nonunion competitors. Still, the UPS strike may mark the beginning of a period in which employees are more willing to push for higher wages, or quit rather than accept part-time work. That could mean an increase in labor costs in the economy - and a possible reignition of inflationary pressures. Christmas Inc. Other experts are less certain about the settlement's inflationary effect. Staff writers Ron Scherer in New York and Shelley Donald Coolidge in Boston contributed to this report.