Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 6, 1993 TAG: 9309060087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DANVILLE, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
His message? It won't be over any time soon.
"I wish I could tell you there's a settlement in the near future, but there's not," Trumka said during a four-state Labor Day holiday trip.
"We know if we don't win job security in this contract, the operators will fight like hell to see that there is never another contract," Trumka said Friday in Danville, W.Va. "And we won't go back to the company store."
The union's members, many on strike since May 10, have gotten the message. Some of them have taken to sporting T-shirts with the slogan "UMWA's Final Stand."
But Peabody Coal Co. President Sam Shiflett, who is chairman of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, said he is "a little surprised" by Trumka's rhetoric.
"I can certainly understand the confusion," Shiflett said Thursday in Henderson, Ky. "You listen to him and you listen to me and we have two very different views of what is happening.
"But I believe we can find a way to resolve this," Shiflett said.
The UMW says it has 17,000 miners on strike in seven states in Appalachia and the Midwest. The dispute is over a practice known as "double breasting," in which companies operate both union and nonunion subsidiaries.
The UMW recently signed a contract with four midsized independent producers that guarantees all new jobs to UMW members. The agreement allows work-rule changes such as those the Bituminous Coal Operators Association is seeking, but only if they add to the jobs available to UMW miners.
Shiflett said his group's proposal to the UMW "covers their problem."
Trumka alleges the operators have escalated the strike, despite a plea for calm by the governors of the seven coal states. He said Peabody and CONSOL Inc. are conducting joint interviews to hire replacement workers.
Both Shiflett and CONSOL spokesman Thomas Hoffman denied Trumka's claim that the companies are preparing to replace the strikers.
Shiflett said his mines have been operating with management employees. He said flatly, "I have not," when asked if he has advertised for replacements.
"We have invited our employees, our UMWA employees, to return to work," Shiflett said. He would not say if any have returned.
by CNB