UPS Strike Threatens Academic Bookstores

When United Parcel Service (UPS) workers went on strike two weeks ago, they intended to impair the shipping company's business; yet the labor dispute may also hurt students and professors this fall when needed text fail to arrive at academic bookstores across the nation.

Because he Harvard Coop, where most students purchase their books, is now affiliated with Barnes and Noble, officials said they don't expect book shipments to be severely affected. Barnes and Noble has its own trucking company in New Jersey that will deliver books to the Coop.

Still, the Coop had planned for some books to arrive by UPS, said Scott C. Montgomery, assistant general manager.

"Obviously, we are concerned about how UPS will affect book shipments but, because of Barnes and Noble's pick-up, we won't be impacted as much as other schools," Montgomery said.

The workers went on strike in early August demanding higher wages and changes to the pension plan. UPS had returned to only 10 percent of its normal daily volume by using 50,000 managers and administrative employees, the company said in a statement.

Harvard's late-September start also helps the situation. Still Montgomery said he plans a complete review of their inventory next week and will arrange alternative shipment for any books that may be "lost in the world of UPS."

Other Ivy League book providers have similar concerns.

"Oh sure, everybody's concerned," said John T. Sweeny at the Princeton Store. "We anticipated the strike and had many of our books shipped in July." But Sweeny still predicts that about 10 percent of his store's books may be out of stock when school starts at Princeton on Sept. 11.

Bookstore officials said that at worst the strike will only slow the books' arrival. Publishers will hold shipments to combine with other orders and ship later using other carriers, Sweeny said.

National publishing and college store associations have asked President Clinton to intervene in the strike, which he has refused to do. The Associations of American Publishers has asked Clinton to direct postal workers to give the delivery of educational materials special attention.

The National Association of College Stores has requested that publishers issue a blanket permission to allow colleges and universities to copy the first three chapters of necessary texts without seeking copyright clearance, according to Garis F. Distelhorst, chief staff executive of the National Association of College Stores.

"If the strike is not solved in the next couple of weeks, there will be a lot of problems at a lot of universities," Distelhorst said.The CrimsonDavid I. LiuStrikers and security officers at the Somerville UPS branch.

The National Association of College Stores has requested that publishers issue a blanket permission to allow colleges and universities to copy the first three chapters of necessary texts without seeking copyright clearance, according to Garis F. Distelhorst, chief staff executive of the National Association of College Stores.

"If the strike is not solved in the next couple of weeks, there will be a lot of problems at a lot of universities," Distelhorst said.The CrimsonDavid I. LiuStrikers and security officers at the Somerville UPS branch.