Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 24, 1993 TAG: 9311240117
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HUNTINGTON, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
A union official cautioned, however, that details weren't complete on any contract with coal companies.
"No tentative agreement has been reached yet," UMW spokesman Jim Grossfeld said in Washington, D.C. "We're still meeting."
"They're working out the final language on the draft," said Joe Angleton, president of UMW District 12 covering Illinois.
"For Thanksgiving, we're going to have a lot of hope, hold hands and pray, and say, `Hey, thank you Lord,' " said striking miner Greg Chrobak, 37, of Fairmont, W.Va.
Grossfeld confirmed that negotiators had agreed on a way to resolve the union's demand for amnesty for strikers fired for picket line misconduct.
That demand had been described as the last major issue in the negotiations, which began last year.
Special Mediator Bill Usery declined to comment.
Thomas Hoffman, a spokesman for the Bituminous Coal Operators Association bargaining group and vice president of CONSOL Inc. of Upper St. Clair, Pa., said that company offered to remove its security guards if the UMW removed its pickets from CONSOL operations.
The order to abandon picket lines is unusual for the UMW, which in the past has left pickets in place until miners ratified a contract.
The UMW began a walkout May 10 against selected members of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association in what it said was a dispute over job security and future employment for union members.
The union said it had about 17,500 members on strike in Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania. That's about one-third of the union's 1990 working membership.
A nonunion contractor was shot to death at a southern West Virginia mine in July. Eight union miners face trial in January on conspiracy and other federal charges.
Twenty-two union members were fired by Eastern Associated Coal Corp., a subsidiary of Peabody Holding Co.
The company said they committed violence while picketing. Other companies said they were considering similar moves.
Most coal companies entered the strike with major stockpiles. They have maintained part of their production using supervisors.
But the strike crippled the economies of coalfield communities where mines often provide a majority of the jobs.
The union said 60,000 miners were covered by the expired 1988 contract with the coal operators' group. The companies said the number is closer to 48,000.
Companies in the coal operators' association mine about 30 percent of the nation's coal with UMW labor.
by CNB