DAYTON DAILY NEWS                   Copyright (c) 1997, Dayton Newspapers Inc.DATE: Monday, August 25, 1997               TAG: 9708250162EDITION: CITY          SECTION: NEWS        PAGE: 1A SOURCE: By David Mendell Dayton Daily News                                     LABOR                    PART-TIME JOBS CAN BE FULL-TIME STRESS * The UPS strike may shine the light on a growing labor practice.    Joe Jansen reaches work about 3:30 a.m. most days and spends five hoursloading packages onto United Parcel Service trucks for delivery duringdaylight hours.   To make ends meet, the 22-year-old Dayton resident has worked evenings atPizza Hut, at bars as a bouncer and in schools as a janitor. He'd like nothingmore than a full-time job at UPS so he could work a full-time day shift andget medical benefits, but he knows that isn't likely.   Barb Vedder works part time running the daily operations of several officesfor Manpower Temporary Services Inc.   She gets no health benefits, works no more than 32 hours per week andchooses not to work full time, preferring instead to spend one day a weekvolunteering at her children's elementary school in Vandalia. She wantsnothing to do with a 40-hour work week.   Two part-time workers. Two very different worlds.   UPS' use of part-time workers and its reluctance to add the full-time jobsthe union sought  was a vital element in the Teamsters' strike which endedlast week at UPS. Labor leaders accused UPS of unfairly holding down thebottom line by relegating full-time work into the hands of part-timers, who,at roughly $9 per hour, earn about $10 less per hour than full-time employees.UPS maintained that its part-time positions were good jobs and many peoplelike to work part time.   The issue of part-time labor appeared to resonate with many Americans,causing analysts to wonder whether this will be the issue labor leaders carryinto future battles.   Is the country turning into a two-tiered system of haves working full-timejobs and have-nots working part time? Or, as other analysts suggest, ispart-time work simply a necessary evolution of the U.S. economy as businessesstrive to remain flexible amid global competition?   Labor economist Harley Shaiken falls into the former group. He calledpart-time labor "a hidden form of unemployment" and believes the UPS strikewill be a "watershed event for labor."   "There are millions of jobs in this economy and millions of people who onlywant part-time work," said Shaiken of the University of California atBerkeley. "But there is a large group, by historical standards, who wantfull-time jobs, and companies just won't offer them. Companies often utilizepart-time labor to get away with lower wages, fewer benefits and lessresponsibility to the worker."   Jansen agreed with that assessment - and is angered by it. He said he hasbeen working part time at UPS for four years and wants a full-time job.   "There's no reason for companies to be keeping people on part time whenprofits are way up," said Jansen, who earns $11.25 per hour. "It all comesdown to that dollar, I guess."   But others believe the free-market system should dictate the value andhours of an employee's worth.   As the economy evolves globally, to remain competitive, U.S. companies canno longer afford to hire their entire work force at full benefits and fullemployment.   "From a purely market perspective," said Lawrence Hadley, a labor economistat the University of Dayton, "let the market decide the mix of compensationfor each employee."   Some workers agree. A part-time job fits in well with many workers'lifestyles. A society with only full-time jobs would be just as ill-served asone with only part-time jobs.   Manpower's Vedder, for instance, doesn't want to work more than 32 hours aweek, and notes that her husband's job provides necessary health benefits. Shewants to spend time at Helke Elementary School, where her two children attendclasses.   "It's very important for me to have time for that," she said.   More than 23 million jobs in this country are part time, according to theU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of those jobs carry lower wages andfewer of the benefits, such as sick leave and health care, that full-time jobscarry.   But, despite the recent outcry over part-time labor, the size of thepart-time work force compared with the overall work force has remained fairlyconstant over the past 30 years.   In 1968, part-time jobs made up 14 percent of all jobs, while today thatnumber stands at 18 percent. Part-time wages, however, have remained even morestagnant than full-time wages. UPS, for example, hadn't raised part-timers'starting salaries since the early 1980s.   Perhaps that's why most people still desire full-time work. Catherine Drew,Manpower's marketing manager in Dayton, said prospective workers andcompanies, for the most part, are looking for full-time work.   "We don't get that many orders for part-time jobs," Drew said.   Nevertheless, the labor movement recognizes the sympathy it garnered byusing the part-time issue as a rallying cry. The Teamsters persuaded UPS toconvert thousands of part-time jobs into full-time positions and to raisepart-timers' starting wages for the first time since 1982.   "I think the possibility of more full-time jobs is one of the legacies ofthe UPS strike," Shaiken said. "I think the general emphasis on organizing inthe labor movement, combined with the focus on part-time work, could lead tomuch more activity in this area."   LENGTH:   99 lines