A two-week strike by 185,000 Teamsters in 1997 cost the company millions of dollars, crippling the Atlanta-based package delivery giant. The five-year contract that was reached expires July 31.

Union members voted by secret ballot Saturday and Sunday (May 18 and 19) at every Teamsters UPS local in the country.

"For a company that says it wants an early agreement, negotiations sure are moving slowly," Teamsters President James P. Hoffa said. "It is time to jump-start negotiations. It is time to get down to business."

But UPS spokesman Norman Black cautioned that the vote "is a normal part of the negotiating process and should not be taken out of context as a barometer of the progress of negotiations."

"UPS is committed to reaching an agreement as soon as practical to protect UPS volume, preserve Teamster jobs and allow UPS to provide the reliable service its customers expect," Black said.

Negotiations resume this week in Chicago.

Meanwhile, a primary architect of the 1997 Teamsters strike against United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) has been named lead negotiator for the latest contract talks, a sign that the union is likely to toughen its tactics as the two sides step up the pace of negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Ken Hall, the 45-year-old president of Local 175 in Charleston, W.Va., also agreed to lead the union's parcel and small-package division, a post he held during the 15-day walkout at the Atlanta-based delivery company. He succeeds Bill Lichtenwald, who stepped aside to spend more time on his duties as president of a Teamster local in Toledo , Ohio.

Hall was already part of the union's 58-person negotiating committee, which has been in contract talks with UPS since January. He is best known for helping former Teamster President Ron Carey orchestrate the strike that cost the company about $750 million in revenue and disrupted the supply chains of thousands of businesses across the country.

So far, a walkout this summer has seemed unlikely, and both sides have remained generally quiet about four rounds of negotiations on a new contract for the 220,000 Teamsters in the company's 371,000-person work force. But the move by Teamster chief James Hoffa to put Hall in charge of the talks for a second time almost certainly will result in an escalation in the union's rhetoric.

A spokesman at UPS told The Wall Street Journal the company sees "absolutely nothing that is going to change here that would prevent us from negotiating a contract in a timely way that rewards our employees without a disruption in service."