Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 30, 1993 TAG: 9301300059
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ENERGY WALKOUTS LOOM
Up to 100,000 workers in the oil and coal industries could strike next week if negotiations fail to produce contracts.Depending on the duration, walkouts by 60,000 members of the United Mine Workers Union and 40,000 members of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union could disrupt supplies of coal and refined petroleum.
Neither union, however, has disclosed if it would strike, nor if it would be a total or a rotating strike if it occurs.
In the coal industry, there was no sign of a breakthrough in talks between the UMW and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, which represents 12 of the nation's largest coal producers. Their contract expires at midnight Monday.
Negotiations have been held since November under a mutual news blackout.
"What happens on Feb. 1?" teases a sticker that's been appearing on coal miners' hard hats. "We know . . . do you?"
The UMW's five-year contract with the bituminous association covers miners in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
Job security is a critical issue, with the union concerned about company establishment of non-union subsidiaries. The companies want the miners to pay part of their health insurance premiums. Pay ranges from $11 to about $15 an hour.
Pensions and benefits for about 120,000 retired miners also are affected.
Robert E. Wages, president of the oil workers' union, scheduled a news conference for Monday. More than 300 contracts expire at midnight Sunday.
"If we can't announce that we've reached a settlement, then we'll be announcing either that 40,000 oil workers are out on strike, or that we've decided to strike certain selected companies who have shown us that they want to take us on," Wages said.
The union negotiating team rejected a third offer by Amoco Oil Co. on Thursday, Wages said in Lakewood, Colo.
In a memo to oil workers, he said Amoco's latest offer "doesn't measure up," but was a step in the right direction in pay, family leave and other issues.
Amoco's latest offer called for a three-year agreement, with raises of 2.5 percent the first year, 3 percent the second year and 3.5 percent the third. The union wants 7 percent increases in each of the first two years and 6.5 percent the third. The national average pay for refinery workers is $17.54 an hour.
Historically, the union negotiates with one major oil company and that agreement becomes a model for the others.