Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 29, 1990 TAG: 9007250462
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: JEWELL RIDGE LENGTH: Medium
But down the hollows and along the ridges of Tazewell and Buchanan counties, the picket line is still an every-day reality for roughly 170 miners who worked for Pittston subcontractors.
The miners walked out along with the Pittston strikers on April 5, 1989; but, unlike Pittston - where the strike ended in February - many subcontracting companies haven't come to terms with the UMW and don't look like they will any time soon.
Now, that all the media hoopla that characterized the Pittston strike is over, the miners who remain on the picket lines feel overlooked.
"All of it's just been forgotten," said striker Michael "Bugdust" Griffith. "Most [people] don't realize there still is a strike. They think it's over since Pittston got their contract."
Griffith was playing small-stakes poker with some other strikers earlier this month at a picket shack about eight miles north of Richlands. It was a hot, muggy day and the sky was turning an ominous dark gray to the northeast.
Griffith and about a dozen others are striking Westfork Energy, a Pittston subcontractor that's operated by William Harris, a member of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors. The company has continued to operate despite the strike.
"You've got a lot of people that think we're sitting here on our hind ends drawing money for nothing," said striker Harry Shelton. "We haven't got a whole lot of choice - either that or leave this area."
Shelton, 40, said jobs are scarce around Buchanan and Tazewell counties, particularly for out-of-work union coal miners. First there's your age, he said, and then the fact you're a coal miner who has been on strike. Employers "won't have anything to do with you."
When Pittston shut down most of its Jewell Ridge mines in 1982, "a lot of men went scrambling for jobs," Shelton said. The mines used to be the only thing supporting the economy in the coalfields, but now it's the first of the month when the government checks arrive, he said.
"The only reason I'm doing well," Griffith said, studying his poker hand, "is [since] I was laid off back in '82, I haven't bought nothing, I stayed out of debt."
Griffith and others eventually went back to work about five years after the 1982 layoff when Pittston subcontracted its mines. But since then there have been another layoff and the strike.
The union is taking care of the strikers, providing a $225-a-week strike benefit, Shelton said. And retired miners pitch in with donations and manpower for the picket lines. "Somebody said it good the other day," Shelton said; "you can live on this but you can't have nothin'."
Virginia UMW District 28 President Donnie Lowe said that, for the most part, the union is not making any progress in negotiations on new contracts with the remaining unsigned Pittston subcontractors.
The Westfork strikers are hoping that Pittston might take back and reopen the mine, which they say is rich in low-sulfur coal. Pittston has been looking at its options but has no definite plans to do that right now, said Pittston spokeswoman Susan Copeland.
"It seems like a lifetime ago," Shelton said of the start of the strike. "I'm tired of it."
"Yeah, it's monotonous," said Griffith. "I wish they'd put us back to work.
by CNB