BUSINESSES FEEL PINCH OF STRIKE AGAINST UPS

A national Teamsters Union strike against United Parcel Service is causing local businesses to feel the pinch where it hurts most: in their receivables.

Union members went on strike at midnight Sunday after negotiations with UPS broke down. UPS has continued service using a skeleton staff. Competitors Federal Express and the U.S. Postal Service have set delivery limits in an effort to meet increased demand.

Business managers said their volume of outgoing shipments is usually small enough that the strike probably won't cause any major problems. However, they have already seen drastic reductions in the number of packages they receive daily, and a prolonged strike could have a devastating effect on businesses.

Gene Magnus, owner and president of Clas Computers Inc., said his company received 20 to 50 packages a day from UPS before the strike. Now he is being charged by suppliers if they use an alternative delivery company, and he only received two packages on Tuesday.

"We're hurting bad," Magnus said. "Now that everything is going FedEx, we're having to pay for it. It's going to effect businesses very much adversely."

Hospitals and pharmaceutical companies also rely on delivery services for supplies. Southeast Missouri Hospital spokesperson Sally Owen said the hospital has already experienced a decrease of at least 40 packages daily in receivables, but only time will tell how hard the hospital will be hit.

D&K Wholesale supervisors said they have extra products in their warehouses, but they could experience problems after the strike ends. The company supplies pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to area pharmacies.

"We assume that the order could get held up some time, so buyers build in a grace period with the orders," said daytime supervisor Todd Spaulding. "It's going to hurt us not as much in getting the stuff on the shelf as much as the overload next week."

My Daddy's Cheescake has been a customer of Federal Express for about a year. Owner Wes Kinsey said his Federal Express representative assured him last week that regular customers and emergency orders would be given priority over regular packages. Even so, Kinsey said the strike is making him more careful about placing timely orders so that he doesn't run out of supplies.

"As long as we don't run out of ingredients we've got it made," he said. "We haven't had any problems yet, but some of our suppliers are having some problems getting our products to us."

Some independent business owners said their companies planned ahead for the strike and haven't felt any effects yet. Mary Kay independent directors Wilma Dooley and Jana Jateef said they were notified that their deliveries would be handled by the U.S. Postal Service if a strike occurred. Since then, they both have received packages by U.S. mail in the same amount of time or faster than they would have gotten them by UPS.

Sherry Rowland, office manager at Muffler Express and Auto Repair, said the strike is frustrating because it makes scheduling customers for service more difficult. She anticipates two-to-three-day delays on all special-order products, but she said there isn't much she can do but wait for the package to arrive.

"It's terrible when you tell a customer their part will be in in two and three days so you can schedule them, and then their part isn't here," Rowland said. "We tell our customers once we've made the order it's totally out of our hands. We're just rolling with the punches at this point."