Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 23, 1993 TAG: 9306230149
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HUNTINGTON, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
Workers at CLI Inc. of Pittsburgh, which operates the Homer City coal preparation plant in Indiana County, Pa., will return to work Monday, said UMW President Richard Trumka. They have been on strike since May 25.
Trumka said the company's decision "was based on the recognition that it's time for a new approach to labor-management relations in the U.S. coal industry."
CLI has signed an interim agreement with the union.
It is the second company to announce it is leaving the association, which started negotiations with the union last Nov. 6.
AMAX Coal Co. of Indianapolis, the nation's third-largest coal producer, said two weeks ago it was leaving the coal association because of plans to merge with Cyprus Coal Co., which has a separate agreement with the UMW.
"As a practical matter, CLI's action will have no effect on the approach BCOA takes to the contract negotiations," said Thomas F. Hoffman, spokesman for both CONSOL Inc. and the coal operators' negotiating committee.
The coal association filed unfair labor practice charges against both the UMW and AMAX after the company announced it was leaving the association.
Under federal labor law, companies belonging to a multiemployer bargaining group cannot withdraw once negotiations are under way. However, the UMW has said it refuses to recognize the coal association as its negotiating partner.
"Until we see the interim agreement CLI has signed with the union and fully understand the circumstances of CLI's announced withdrawal from BCOA, we will not decide on what action we will take," Hoffman said.
The union is negotiating with another group of coal operators, the Independent Bituminous Coal Bargaining Alliance. The four employers making up that group are working under a contract extension due to expire June 30.
In other strike news, striking miners in Boone County, W.Va., blockaded about 20 Hobet Mining Inc. managers in a school parking lot Tuesday, keeping the managers from reporting to work at strikebound Hobet No. 21 mine.
The pickets said they were protesting Hobet's use of out-of-state labor at the mine. They released the managers after meeting briefly with state police and members of the Boone County School Board, who told them they could not restrict access to the school.
About 14,000 miners are now on strike in West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. No mines in Virginia are affected by the strike.
by CNB