By Geoff Mulvihill

A.P. writer

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J.—New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine sent a letter July 20 to United Parcel Service of America urging the shipping giant to respect New Jersey’s civil unions law and offer gay employees the same benefits for their partners that married workers get.

The company is one of many that gay rights advocates say is not treating gay employees and their partners the same as married employees and their spouses despite a state law requiring employers to do so.

UPS has said the New Jersey law does not apply to its union employees because the company’s employee benefits are governed by federal law.

Corzine said the company should change its policies anyway.

“Surely, as a company with a long-standing commitment to its employees and the community, UPS would not want to make its employees and their families face these difficult choices based on the subtleties of the interaction of federal and state law,” the letter said.

UPS does provide full benefits for gay administrative employees who are not covered by union contracts. It also provides the full benefits in Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriages are legally recognized.

Lambda Legal, a gay advocacy law organization, initiated a legal process to try to force UPS to offer the benefits to couples in New Jersey on behalf of two couples.

In the meantime, Lambda lawyer David Buckel said he appreciates the governor’s letter.

“It’s quite a governor who reaches out to help a couple families like this,” he said. “We don’t know if we’ll get a letter from the governor for each family and each company.”

Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, says UPS is far from the only company doing business in New Jersey that isn’t following the state law.

“When you have hundreds of companies in New Jersey refusing to respect this law, there’s something wrong with the law itself,” Goldstein said.

In February, New Jersey became the third state to offer civil unions to gay couples. The law was a reaction to a state Supreme Court ruling last year that ordered the New Jersey Legislature to treat gay couples as married couples in many ways, including requiring employers to offer the same health insurance benefits to partners of gay employees that they do to spouses. But the ruling stopped short of legalizing gay marriage.

Goldstein’s group has been asking lawmakers to pass a new law that would allow gay marriage. He said that out of about 1,350 couples who have been joined in civil unions since February, nearly 200 have complained that their rights are not being fully recognized.