The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Good evening. I'm Elizabeth Farnsworth. Jim Lehrer is on vacation. On the NewsHour tonight Paul Solman explores labor's clout in the wake of the UPS settlement; an update on electric cars; and Louisiana's new marriage law: will it discourage divorce? It all follows our summary of the news this Wednesday.NEWS SUMMARY

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Drivers and other Teamsters began returning to their jobs today at United Parcel Service. Trucks rolled from company terminals throughout the nation as workers started delivering a backlog of packages. Before the strike, the shipping firm handled an average of 12 million items a day. That number was cut by about 90 percent during the 15-day strike of 185,000 union members. The walkout ended after the two sides crafted a tentative five-year contract Monday night. Union members are now voting by mail on the contract. We'll have more on the state of the labor movement right after this News Summary. In other economic news today the U.S. trade deficit fell sharply to 8.2 billion dollars in June. But even with that one-month showing, the Commerce Department reported the annual gap between exports and imports is still headed toward record levels. In June, U.S. exports rose to an all-time high and imports were down for the first time in eight months. But the U.S. trade deficit with Japan and China kept growing by double deficit margins. Commerce Secretary William Daley said China must do more to open its markets to American goods.

WILLIAM DALEY, Secretary of Commerce: China's economy has been growing rapidly, and our U.S. exports should be doing better. There's no reason why our products cannot have a higher presence in the Chinese market, as theirs do in ours. We continue to raise this issue, and I look forward to discussing this with my Chinese counterparts during my trip to China in October.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The overall trade deficit for the first half of this year is running at an annual rate of 111.1 billion dollars, putting the country on track to its worst trade performance since 1988. Overseas today Israeli jets bombed an electric power line in Southern Lebanon and attacked suspected guerrilla camps in the eastern part of the country. The bombing raids were the most extensive and the first aimed at an economic target since a 1996 agreement by Israel and Lebanese factions to stop attacks on civilians. An Israeli army statement said the bombing was in retaliation for recent attacks by Islamic Hezbollah guerrillas in Northern Israel and followed recent clashes between Hezbollah and the Lebanese militia group allied with the Israelis. In the Bosnian Serb republic today troops from the International Stabilization Force sealed off police stations and a police academy in the city of Banja Luka. The deployment of 350 British and Czech troops and armored personnel carriers followed an appeal from Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic for international help. She has been in a power struggle with former Serb Leader Radovan Karadzic over, among other things, control of the Bosnian Serb security forces. Mrs. Plavsic said that troops found large quantities of unauthorized weapons, including machine guns, rocket launchers, and mines. International investigators said they had also uncovered evidence of widespread tapping of Mrs. Plavsic's phones by police loyal to Karadzic. Back in this country, a Charleston, South Carolina prosecutor said today no charges will be filed in connection with the alleged hazing of two female cadets at the Citadel last year. Solicitor David Shwakee said the state's anti-hazing law applies to fraternities and sororities but not to the Citadel's corps of cadets. The two women joined the cadet corps last August but dropped out in January. Fourteen male cadets were punished or left school as a result of the accusations. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to labor's clout after the UPS settlement, an update on electric cars, and a new kind of marriage contract in Louisiana. FOCUS - FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Lessons from the UPS strike are first tonight. Paul Solman has that story.

PAUL SOLMAN: In the wake of yesterday's UPS/Teamsters settlement both sides talked about whether the 15-day strike would have a longer-term impact on labor/management relations in the U.S.. Here's what Teamsters President Ron Carey had to say in reference to victory celebrations around the country planned for tomorrow.

RON CAREY, President, Teamsters Union: As you know, many events around the country have been planned for the action day for good jobs. People will be celebrating our victory over corporate greed. But more than that, people will be showing their support for other workers, for standing up for the great American dream. Non-union workers will be talking about how this victory has inspired them to fight for the future, just as UPS workers did. If your company comes to you and says they want to shift your job to part-time, temporary, or subcontract it to low-wage firm overseas, you have to be organized. You have to have leverage in order to do something about it.

PAUL SOLMAN: UPS Chairman James Kelly was also asked at a press conference whether this strike will energize the labor movement and create problems for management. Here's his response.

JAMES KELLY, Chairman, UPS: Our job was to try to get the thing done and get our people back to work and serve our customers. We weren't in some national issue, but I think what we'll have to do is we'll have to revisit this. We'll have to come back in a year and in two years and three years and see how it's impacted UPS, see how it's impacted the number of jobs at UPS, and see what's happened in the country as a result of this, but my answer is no. I mean, we've always had great part-time jobs, and we continue to. The temporary jobs they were talking about, the jobs--they were low pay jobs without benefits that we were talking about never existed at UPS and don't continue to exist at UPS, but are those watershed issues that are going to change the history of labor relations? I don't believe so, no.

PAUL SOLMAN: So what's likely to be the fallout from the strike? We get three views: Harley Shaiken is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies labor relations. Edwin Potter is president of the Employment Policy Foundation, a largely business supported group here in Washington, and Stephen Cabot is a corporate attorney with the firm Harvey Pennington in Philadelphia. Gentlemen, welcome to you all. Prof. Shaiken, the rebirth of the labor movement here, solidarity forever once again?

HARLEY SHAIKEN, University of California, Berkeley: Well, I think certainly we're seeing an important element of that. This strike was a big victory for labor. It is a watershed event. It really demonstrated two things very clearly: first, that determination on the picket line does pay off. This is a very generous settlement, far more generous than most observers predicted. The union won not simply full-time but important gains in pensions and subcontracting. And second, in addition to that, the union movement--the labor movement, itself, spoke for working Americans in this strike. That's a role that labor has historically played but really hasn't played all that effectively in the last several decades. So in that sense, this was already a major watershed event for labor. And I suspect the fallout of this will be very positive for union organizing and for the strength of the labor movement.

PAUL SOLMAN: Any other evidence, I mean besides this one victory it seems a slim lead perhaps on which to base a notion about rebirth?

HARLEY SHAIKEN: Well, this is actually a pretty thick and pretty vibrant reed. If this is all we were talking about, I think we could make a compelling case by what we've seen already in the lat two weeks. But, in fact, I think this has to be put and really ought to be put within a larger context. The new reform leadership of the AFL-CIO under John Sweeney is a very important part of this, that is, transforming labor from a lobbying organization in so many ways in Washington to an organization in communities and factories and workplaces, really in the streets. That's an important part of this. If we look at other labor initiatives, such as in Watsonville, a very large campaign to organize strawberry workers, or a successful campaign in Las Vegas to organize hotel workers, where 8,000 workers have joined unions in the last year alone, I think those are two examples among many examples that give us a sense of the renewal of the labor movement today. It's not going to be an easy fight. I mean, it's not going to be without problems or automatic, but I think we have seen some important changes in process.

PAUL SOLMAN: So, Mr. Cabot, what do you think? Is this going to set back labor-management relations from the point of view of your clients, your business clients?

STEPHEN CABOT, Labor/Management Attorney: I think it has the potential. Sadly, what the Teamsters have tried to do and what Ron Carey did in the news conference that we saw is to try to popularize the notion of a strike. It's my hope that when the facts become clear and the fallout is over, that working Americans will be much and are much brighter than Ron Carey would give them credit for. When working Americans look at a strike and see violence and deaths and risk and loss of income and people having to garner $55 a week to strike and to strike over what, because UPS had offered a very fair contract, which the union never even allowed people to have the chance to vote on.

PAUL SOLMAN: But you do think it's significant?

STEPHEN CABOT: I think it is significant. I think it's significant if two things occur: that the working public does not grasp the reality of what really occurred during the strike, and more importantly, that corporate America recognize what labor's plan is, to use the UPS issue as a political benchmark, as a jumping off point to garner a type of enthusiasm. If corporate America wakes up and really does what it should do--and I believe many of it is doing now--treating people fairly, paying them well, paying them right, providing the proper types of benefits, then I think Carey's effort to try to use the UPS strike as a springboard will fail. But corporate America has that responsibility. If it lives up to it, then Carey's efforts will fail. If corporate America fails to respond, then Carey might be successful.

PAUL SOLMAN: Well, let me get Mr. Potter in here. Mr. Potter, they both think it's quite significant, although for different reasons, or we're getting it from different points of view. What about you, do you think this is a really significant event?

EDWARD POTTER, Employment Policy Foundation: Well, I actually disagree. I don't think it's a watershed event. I think it's a dispute involving the employer-employee relations, a particular set of circumstances do not generally apply across the economy. In fact, I think if we step back for the moment, I think we could view this as--as really a tragedy for the American public, American business, UPS in particular, and American workers, and especially the UPS strikers because essentially they economically did not get anything out of this agreement that really was not already on the table in the employer's last offer.

PAUL SOLMAN: Let's get the larger level of abstraction here for a second. We have a couple of charts, and I think you can see them over here. The first one is--I think it's the percentage of union members in the work force and in the total work force--there it is. Do you think--are you saying that you do not think that that's going to be reversed now? I mean, that's a pretty precipitous decline over a very long period of time. That's 20 years or more.

EDWARD POTTER: Yes. The circumstances involved in the decline of the labor movement go well beyond anything that would be involved in this particular strike. And--

PAUL SOLMAN: But, Mr. Shaiken, Professor Shaiken is talking about a revitalization.

EDWARD POTTER: Well, yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: Setting an example. And Mr. Cabot seems to agree.

EDWARD POTTER: There's no question that there's going to be an energized labor movement. The question is whether or not what they do with this energy is effective in organizing workers, but they've got some long odds stacked against them. You've got an economy that is structured quite differently today than at the period when it was at 24 percent. You've got a larger service economy, smaller manufacturing economy, service workers are traditionally harder to organize.

PAUL SOLMAN: Why? Because--

EDWARD POTTER: They are smaller workplaces. Service workers are a little more transitory, a little harder to organize. We have an aging work force. The older workers are unionized; younger workers have proved to be more difficult to unionize. Women have been hard to organize. Labor relations practices, as Mr. Cabot pointed out, have improved in the workplaces. We have labor-management laws that cover a broad range of terms and conditions of employment that traditionally were a part of a collective bargaining agreement, and now individuals can go to attorneys like Mr. Cabot and seek their rights.

PAUL SOLMAN: So you mean this would be bucking all those trends. Mr. Shaiken, we have another chart for you here of work stoppages over the last 20 years and again I think you'll see if it comes up on the screen a precipitous decline just like union membership. I mean, with all the reasons Mr. Potter just gave for why those trends might continue, or certainly wouldn't turn around, I mean, what's your response?

HARLEY SHAIKEN: Well, I think Mr. Potter raised some very valid and important points, but, in fact, those are precisely the points where I think the strike is a watershed event, and why I think the prognosis in part, only in part, as a result of the strike, is very good for labor. Mr. Potter indicated that union s have historically been weak in the service sector, yet, this is an important victory for unions precisely in the service sector. Where unions have succeeded I think most effectively in the last couple of years, in fact, has been in the service sector, whether in hotels in Las Vegas, in nursing homes in Florida, in supermarkets in New England, it's been these new gains in the service sector where 3/4 of the jobs in this economy are. So there's no question that we've seen a tough decline for labor for a variety of reasons over the last several decades. It's unlikely that that's going to turn around in a year or two years. It took us two decades to get here, but I think the signs are there, particularly with this strike that's hardly exclusively as a result of this strike that labor is being far more innovative, far more effective, and has the possibility of raising a banner that working Americans feel are their issues. The issues, in this strike in particular at the bargaining table, are the very issues that are causing such anxiety at the dinner table.

PAUL SOLMAN: Mr. Cabot, what about this whole issue of part-time work, which seemed to get Americans behind the Teamsters and two to one at last in the polls that I read? Is that now a big, big issue for your clients say and for the American public?

STEPHEN CABOT: As a management-labor lawyer for 31 years I have never seen this as a material issue. And I've seen it become, if it ever once was material, it's becoming less and less an issue. Most people--as I mentioned--working Americans are bright enough to understand that corporate America needs flexibility. And sometimes that flexibility results in the use of part-timers. We're not talking, as Chairman Kelly said, being abusive to people by underpaying work, creating sweatshops. We're talking about paying aan excess of $10 an hour for somebody to work part-time who wants to work part-time. And I think what the Teamsters have tried to do is to use a make-way argument, try to create a populous appeal.

PAUL SOLMAN: But they have created that, haven't they, at least a benefit?

STEPHEN CABOT: Of course they have, and they're going to use that as an issue. And I hope they do because if they keep using that issue, they're going to make my job easier; they're going to take- -

PAUL SOLMAN: Well, you'll get more business, anyway.

STEPHEN CABOT: Whether I do or I don't, I think what's going to happen is they're going to build a foundation that's--that has its base on sand. And they're going to sink. I think what labor has done however, and I said this earlier, is that there will be a populous appeal where some people will react emotionally in the short run to what labor is trying to use as its new energy or energizing tactics. I think in the long run, when the fallout occurs, and the bright working Americans understand what really occurred, and what Chairman Kelly said, they're going to realize ultimately that the union movement has been--and what it is espousing now--is built on a mound of poppycock.

PAUL SOLMAN: Okay. Those bright Americans, Mr. Potter, perhaps you can speak to them as well. What do you think about this part- time issue? How--how much has it caught people's imagination?

EDWARD POTTER: Well, I think the issue is frankly misunderstood. The impression that's created by this dispute as part-time work is growing, in fact, is declining. It's gone down from 20 percent of the American work force to 18 percent of the American work force. For every new part-time job that's created ten full-time jobs are created. And in this particular UPS/Teamsters dispute, it wasn't a question of the--of the employer here replacing full-time employees with part-time employees. In fact, they created 1,000 full-time jobs during the last contract.

PAUL SOLMAN: All right. Well, Mr. Shaiken, we'll end with you, please, if you wouldn't mind responding to this part-time issue and how important you think it is.

HARLEY SHAIKEN: I think it's very important. One out of every five jobs in this economy is part-time. It's true, part-time jobs in the last several years have declined somewhat in large part because the Bureau of Labor Statistics changed how part-time work is defined. We have over 4 + million people who are working part- time for economic reasons, and I think American working people are, in fact, very bright, and few are brighter than the UPS drivers and package handlers that were engaged in this strike. This wasn't a strike against UPS as a firm. These workers want to see this company succeed as it has succeeded in the past. This was a struggle really to ensure that competitive success translates into full-time jobs that pay decent wages.

PAUL SOLMAN: Harley--

HARLEY SHAIKEN: That's the American story.

PAUL SOLMAN: Okay. Thanks. We have to go. We're running out of time.

HARLEY SHAIKEN: Thank you. UPDATE - ALL CHARGED UP

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Now a progress report on electric cars. Spencer Michels updates a story we first covered last year.

SPENCER MICHELS: For about $400 a month you can now lease an EV-1, the new two-seater General Motors electric-powered vehicle that came on the market last December in Southern California and Arizona. It's the first electric car from a major manufacturer, and GM says it will run 70 miles on a full battery charge in the city,MNEIL 90 miles on the highway. It accelerates from zero to sixty in under nine seconds. At its unveiling last January, GM Chairman Jack Smith said the car was designed for commuters. JACK SMITH, Chairman, General Motors: It is quiet, peppy, and fun to drive. This is not a concept car, and it's not a conversion. This is a passenger car developed specifically as an electric vehicle. It's a car for people who never want to go to a gas station again.

SPENCER MICHELS: A lot of Americans felt that way with the recent rise in the price of gasoline. And that prompted a renewed interest in electric cars. The principal reason for developing electric cars is that gasoline-powered vehicles with internal combustion engines pollute the air. That is especially true in California, according to the chairman of the state's Air Resources Board, John Dunlap, who promotes electric cars by occasionally driving them. His board has told the automakers that 10 percent of the vehicles they sell in California must have zero tailpipe emissions, that is, be electric, by the year 2003. JOHN DUNLAP, California Air Resources Board: As a matter of fact, some 10 percent of all the vehicles sold in the United States are sold here in California, so this is a car culture, and we think that the way to get to improved air quality is to change that motor vehicle fleet in California over time to make it cleaner. And we've done that with clean fuels, with the new gasoline, and we're doing it with the low emission--zero emission vehicle technology as well.

SPENCER MICHELS: The prototype Honda Dunlap is driving produces zero emissions because it runs on batteries, which also power the air conditioning and the stereo. It is one of several new battery- powered vehicles, including a version of the Toyota Rav Four and the Chrysler Epic, coming on the market shortly after GM's EV-1. A variety of cars and trucks that have been converted to electricity are already in use at the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District. The District operates 110 such vehicles and 200 charging stations, including one that produces solar energy. The batteries are charged mostly at night when demand for electricity is low. Mike Wirsch manages the fleet. MIKE WIRSCH, Sacramento Utilities District: The cost of operation is pretty low for electric vehicles. If you look at just fuel cost, it's about one and a half to one point six cents per mile for the electricity cost, and right now, we're paying about six cents per mile for gasoline.

SPENCER MICHELS: The oil industry is not thrilled about the electric cars. Officials are not eager for electricity to replace their product, though they claim that is not a concern at present. Industry representatives say it is unfair that automakers get tax advantages and subsidies for producing electric vehicles, and they say substituting electricity for gasoline won't help the air because cars and gasoline today are already cleaner. Lew Blackwell is alternative fuels manager at Chevron. LEW BLACKWELL, Chevron: With the cars that are being built now and will continue to improve with modern engine technology, modern emission control systems, with the new reformulated gasoline, we have taken out over 96 percent of the, of the pollutants that are emitted by an automobile to the point where it's basically equivalent to what you would get--the benefits you'd get from an electric vehicle. DANIEL SPERLING, University of California: No matter how clean you make a gasoline engine, there's still a substantial amount of pollution.

SPENCER MICHELS: Professor Daniel Sperling directs the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis, and conducts research on electric cars and batteries. DANIEL SPERLING: All of these cars will have much less energy consumption. They will have much lower greenhouse gas emissions, much less pollution, be much quieter, and in other words, be environmentally far superior to what we have now. LEW BLACKWELL: Think where the power comes to charge those batteries. There's going to be no more nuclear power. All the hydro power is at capacity, so all the--all the incremental electricity in this country is coming from fossil fuels. In fact, 30 percent of it comes from coal-fired plants. By going to electric vehicles, you're not getting away from burning fossil fuels.

SPENCER MICHELS: Perhaps the stickiest technical problem facing electric cars today is the battery. Most electric vehicles, including the GM entry, now use a large number of conventional lead acid batteries which need to be recharged at least every 100 miles. Critics consider that a major drawback that will limit the appeal of the cars. Here at Davis, scientists are studying a longer- lasting battery, the nickel metal hydride battery, which should come on the mass market soon. For now, its cost is exorbitant. And engineers are working on an alternative to the battery, a fuel cell. But Professor Sperling says a study he made shows that an electric car with a sixty to one hundred mile range should find plenty of buyers. DANIEL SPERLING: There is a large market for limited-rangevehicles. In some cases, some households said 40 miles really is all they need, all they want. Okay. So that's the first part. The second part we found is that people value very highly home recharging. In other words, they don't like going to gasoline stations. And, in fact, they are willing to pay thousands of dollars extra not to have to go to gasoline stations.

SPENCER MICHELS: This showy electric car is priced at $19,000, considerably less than the GM model with all the amenities. It's made by a small California start-up firm that was all too happy to let me test drive it. SPOKESMAN: It's on.

SPENCER MICHELS: It's on? SPOKESMAN: It's on.

SPENCER MICHELS: It's on? SPOKESMAN: Yeah.

SPENCER MICHELS: It's a Zebra, and its developers are betting there already is a large market for electric vehicles. They're willing to go head-to-head with the big seven automakers. GARY STARR, Zebra Car Company: There's 21 of these pre-production cars currently running around. We're taking orders for the first limited run of 500, which will be built next year.

SPENCER MICHELS: You sound very enthusiastic about this. Is there a chance that, that you could fail? GARY STARR: Well, of course, there's always a chance. I mean, but that's what's great about being here in the U.S. and having an entrepreneur company is, you know, you have the ability to try, and I think this vehicle has a good a chance as any. And as you saw, it's fun to drive.

SPENCER MICHELS: Nationwide, 450 companies like Zebra are working in some phases of advanced transportation technology. Most are in California, and many are part of the non-profit consortium Calstart. Director Michael Gage welcomes the big automakers' entry into the field but says the real innovation comes from the little guy. MICHAEL GAGE, Director, Calstart: The real change will be driven by those outside this industry, not those who have a hundred years invested in the industry. Competition will drive down the cost of their car and every other car in the marketplace, and it will ensure a better quality product.

SPENCER MICHELS: Well, some experts believe pure electric cars are ready for market now, others believe that hybrid vehicles, with both electric and gasoline engines, make sense. Using that technology, these students at UC Davis converted a conventional Ford Taurus so it would get 80 miles per gallon and go for 250 miles, the gasoline engine extending the range. They have entered it in an ongoing competition sponsored by the Big Three Automakers. Professor Andrew Frank is the adviser. ANDREW FRANK, University of California: At this time, for probably, oh, maybe fifteen to twenty years into the future, this kind of a car, that's a half--that has a little gasoline engine and an electric--is probably a good transition to a future battery that may exist 20 years from now.

SPENCER MICHELS: Whether hybrid or pure, electric cars are poised to seriously enter the world car market. The experts say it's a question of when. FOCUS - DEATH DO US PART?

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight the new marriage law in Louisiana.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Finally tonight, a new marriage law in Louisiana. We begin with some background.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Millions of Americans tie the knot every year, pledging to stay together till death do us part, but nearly half of all marriages fail. Divorce rates in the United States are the highest of any western nation, having climbed 34 percent in the decade between 1970 and 1990. Some in Louisiana argued couples weren't taking their vows seriously because it was so easy to marry. BISHOP

PAUL MORTON, St. Stephen Baptist Church, New Orleans: I'm surprised people have not literally opened up some places where you can rent wedding rings because it's just--we take it so lightly.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: In June, the Louisiana legislature dealt with the problem head on. It passed a law which went into effect last week allowing couples to choose a new kind of union called "Covenant Marriage."

BISHOP PAUL MORTON: You have that document as it relates to the "Covenant Marriage"--

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: A Covenant Marriage is harder to enter and escape than a standard marriage. Couples must prove they've had premarital counseling and pledge to seek help if the marriage turns rocky. A standard marriage in Louisiana, which couples can still choose, allows divorce after a six-month separation or immediately if one spouses guilty of adultery or has been sentenced to prison or death. But a Covenant Marriage can't be dissolved unless the couple is separated for two years or can show proof of adultery, abandonment, physical abuse, or if one spouse is sentenced for a felony conviction. Catholic and Episcopal bishops and some Baptist ministers in Louisiana are considering making the Covenant Marriage license a requirement for weddings in their churches. Louisiana is the first state to offer two marriage options, but at least nine other states are also exploring ways to make it tougher to divorce.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Now, four different perspectives on Covenant Marriages. Louisiana Rep. Tony Perkins, a Republican from Baton Rouge, was the primary sponsor of the legislation creating the covenant option. Joe Cook is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Louisiana. Lynne Gold-Bikin is the former chair of the American Bar Association's Family Law Section, and Anita Blair is executive vice president of the Independent Women's Forum, a women's policy organization here in Washington. Thank you all for being with us. Rep. Perkins, this is your legislation. Why did you think it was necessary?

STATE REP. TONY PERKINS, [R] Louisiana: [Baton Rouge] Well, legislatures around the country are continually dealing with issues trying to create new laws to address teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, child poverty, a number of these issues. And now what the social sciences are telling us that these issues trace right back to broken homes. And so government has a vested interest in trying to keep families together. And this bill is not about making divorce more difficult. Its focus is on prevention and on treatment, on making marriages more successful by providing premarital counseling, and encouraging counsel when a couple runs into difficulty. And it's by their own choice. So we think it's a good step in the right direction on shifting our culture back to one of marriage versus one of divorce. $