Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 7, 1993 TAG: 9305070205
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HUNTINGTON, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
"As far as we're concerned, the question of who bargains has already been determined and is not an issue," said Morris Feibusch, spokesman for the association.
Once contract talks begin, federal labor law obligates members of a multiemployer bargaining group to accept the agreement that results. The companies may not bargain individually with the union unless both sides have agreed that bargaining is at an impasse.
The National Labor Relations Board would settle the dispute if the two sides disagreed on whether they had reached an impasse.
"We are a multiemployer bargaining unit," Feibusch said. "The members designate us as such to negotiate with the Mine Workers. That's why we are."
The association took legal action in 1987 against two member companies that tried to negotiate separately with the UMW.
Negotiations that began Nov. 6 have not been held since the two sides recessed shortly before the contract extension expired at midnight Monday.
Since then, miners employed by association companies have been working without a contract. The union says the contract covers 60,000 miners in Appalachia and the Midwest, while the companies put the number at 48,000; the difference reflects the number of laid-off miners that the union still counts as members.
Howard Green, a member of the UMW's governing board, said Thursday that the union had not called a strike because it was trying to give the operators a chance to return to the bargaining table.
"President Trumka is walking that extra mile," Green said.
The Charleston, W.Va., Gazette, citing an unnamed source, reported Thursday that Trumka has asked several members of the association to negotiate separate contracts with the union.
by CNB