Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 10, 1993 TAG: 9309100254
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: OAKWOOD LENGTH: Medium
Salty Dog - he declined to give his real name - spread his arms so Trumka could read the airbrushed message circling the picture of a bulldog: "UMWA SCAB HUNTER '93."
"All right," Trumka said, approvingly and smiling. The encouragement prompted the miner to start raising the shirt over his ample belly.
"No, no," Trumka said, suddenly looking a little uncomfortable with the explicit message. "Mail it to me, all right?"
The near-exchange symbolizes the fine line Trumka is walking as he tries to rally striking miners and sound tough to coal companies but avoid the violence that he says hurts the union's efforts to negotiate a beneficial contract.
"If Trumka appears to condone violence, it would be a political liability," said Rafael Villagran, a coal industry analyst for Lehman Bros. But the specter of sabotage and other expensive forms of violence also keeps pressure on coal companies to negotiate, he said.
The most ominous sign four months into the strike, Villagran said, is that Trumka appears to be "stepping aside and washing his hands" of violence that is more likely to occur if coal companies hire workers to replace the strikers.
Advertisements have started running in communities where mines are being struck that seek applications from potential replacement workers.
In his rally speech in Oakwood, Trumka boasted that no coal company would be able to mine coal with replacement workers during the strike. The tough talk continued at Labor Day weekend rallies in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
Thomas Hoffman, vice president for public relations for CONSOL Inc. of Upper St. Clair, Pa., and spokesman for the operators' negotiating committee, accused Trumka of making "veiled threats" of violence on the picket lines.
"It seems to me the whole tenor of Richard Trumka's comments condoned rather than condemned violence," Hoffman said.
"This strike from the very beginning has been marred by violence up to and including a person being murdered," Hoffman said, referring to the July shooting of a nonunion subcontractor in West Virginia.
An hour before the rally in Oakwood, Trumka told reporters that the union leadership is doing everything in its power to prevent violence in the strike involving 17,000 members in seven states in Appalachia and the Midwest.
It is the coal companies that are provoking violence, Trumka said, by preparing to replace striking coal miners with nonunion workers.
Union spokesman Jim Grossfeld said the coal companies are avoiding a discussion of the issues of the strike by "raising the level of rhetoric over violence. What's ironic is that they are pursuing this at a time when most law enforcement authorities and outside observers readily admit that this has been the least violent coal strike in memory."
"Clearly, both sides are flexing muscles," Villagran said. That's a clear signal, he said, that progress is not being made at the negotiating table.
Talks between the UMW and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association resumed Aug. 11 in Washington, D.C., under the eye of the federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
Blair Gardner, a vice president of Arch Mineral Corp., said it's possible the companies can avoid hiring replacement workers.
"We've made it clear from the outset that at some point if this thing drags on interminably we have a lawful right to bring in replacements," Gardner said. "But right now we are at the table."
by CNB