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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 24, 1993                   TAG: 9307240146
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LUNDALE, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Medium

NONUNION WORKER SLAIN AT COAL MINE PICKET LINE

The fatal shooting of a nonunion worker as he drove past a coal miners' picket line marked the first bloodshed of a 10-week-old strike in an industry notorious for its violent labor struggles. A coal operator offered a $100,000 award Friday for information about the death.

The United Mine Workers union has waged an escalating walkout against members of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association over job security amid dwindling opportunities for middle-aged miners.

"This is barbarous," said Blair Gardner, vice president for St. Louis-based Arch Mineral Corp. The shooting occurred at the company's Arch of West Virginia mine in southern West Virginia's Logan County.

"The circumstances of this tragedy point to a conspiracy to commit murder conceived in a UMWA picket shack," he said.

Richard Trumka, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said he was "shocked and saddened" by Eddie York's death. "We re-emphasize to our members that our picketing and strike activities must remain peaceful," he said.

York, 35, was shot in the head Thursday night as he rode in a convoy on his first day of work at the mine, state police said.

Though it wasn't known Friday who fired the shot, union leaders had vowed to keep the strike free of the violence that has plagued the industry since miners started taking coal from Appalachia.

The only agreement between the two sides Friday seemed to be condemnation of the shooting, which occurred just two days after a U.S. Senate subcommittee on labor relations met in Coraopolis, Pa., to try to find solutions to the strike.

York, of Dingess, in Mingo County, worked for Deskins Contracting, of Holden. Deskins has a long-term contract with Arch of West Virginia to clean out a sludge pond at the mine, work that Gardner said never was performed by the mine's unionized employees.

More than 16,000 union miners are on strike in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. The walkout began May 10.

Since negotiations began Nov. 6, the union has said its priority is job security for middle-aged miners whose operators are dwindling. The UMW's contract with the coal operators covering 60,000 miners in Appalachia and the Midwest expired Feb. 1.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB