
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991                   TAG: 9103280090
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WEST LIBERTY, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Short

COAL MINE VISIT FAILS TO CHANGE VIEWS ON BILL

Labor Secretary Lynn Martin toured a coal mine Wednesday with Richard Trumka, president of the United Mine Workers, but the pair were far apart afterward on a bill to prohibit companies from permanently hiring replacement workers.

Martin toured American Electric Power Co.'s Windsor coal mining operation near here. AEP is parent of Roanoke-based Appalachian Power Co.

"It is the administration's view that collective bargaining has worked and we shouldn't change 50 years of labor law," she said later.

"As long as capital punishment is available to an employer, they don't have that long-term view," Trumka said.

Martin said she toured the mine at the Trumka's invitation. "I didn't see how I could say, sitting behind a desk, how [mine safety] was important unless I was willing to . . . go into some mines."

by CNB