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

DATE: SUNDAY, May 23, 1993                   TAG: 9305230104
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Short

SO FAR, COAL MINERS' STRIKE UNEVENTFUL

Security guards and striking union miners are marking their turf, but so far no major skirmishes have been reported in the nation's coal strike.

"The pickets aren't doing anything," said Sgt. G.A. Ables of the West Virginia State Police. "They're out there doing the things that pickets do, and we're happy right now."

The UMW has about 4,000 miners on strike in Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia. The strike began May 10, a week after the expiration of a negotiated extension of a contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association. It was expanded to West Virginia on Monday.

In Amherstdale, W.Va., security guards at an Arch Mineral Co. coal loading facility took up positions at the end of a bridge and in a conveyor belt line overhanging a highway.

- Associated Press

by CNB