Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993 TAG: 9311240012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D5 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Striking miners with camouflage clothing and fistfuls of rocks "hit us like a hailstorm," Adams told a state judge. "It gets worse every day."
Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the judge was justified in fining the United Mine Workers union $52 million for violence and civil disobedience during the 10-month strike against Pittston Co.
Labor analysts said it's the largest civil contempt fine imposed by an American court and could bankrupt the union. "Nothing of this magnitude has happened before. It's unprecedented," said Chris Cameron of Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.
The UMW contends the fines are excessive. The union also will argue that the fines were unconstitutional because they were criminal in nature but were imposed during civil proceedings.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Circuit Judge Donald McGlothlin was trying to prevent violence by promising a fine for each violation of rules he had imposed on strikers. The court blamed the union for "its utter defiance of the rule of law."
On the same day in April that Adams testified about the dangers of being a replacement worker, gunfire knocked out power to one of Pittston's underground mines. McGlothlin said he didn't want the violence to escalate.
The judge said he would fine the union each time coal transportation and production was hindered. He said the money would be distributed to the state, which had sent several hundred state troopers to the coalfields to keep the peace, to Pittston and to the two counties in his jurisdiction.
The dispute over Pittson's elimination of health benefits to retirees drew international labor support and attention because it involved the widespread use of massive sit-down demonstrations and the takeover of a processing plant to slow coal operations.
It also sparked wildcat strikes for much of the summer and at one point 46,000 miners in 10 states walked off their jobs to show their support for Pittston strikers.
"I don't think anybody in Dickenson County would want the union to have to pay those fines," said coal miner Bill Patton, a former county board member who was arrested during a sit-down demonstration. "I had never been arrested in my life, but on that day I sat in the road I felt like I was doing my moral duty to myself, my family and my father, who worked in the mines for 53 years and lost his hospital card."
But the strike also included violent tactics to disrupt shipments and intimidate replacement workers. They included rock throwing, firing shots into vehicles, placing spikes on roads, sabotaging equipment with dynamite and beating up "scabs."
The 327-day strike by 1,695 UMW members was centered in Virginia, though Pittston miners in West Virginia and Kentucky also participated. McGlothlin said there were 760 violations of his orders, 400 proved. Two-thirds involved violence against people and property. There were 71 injuries.
In nearly all strikes, even the violent ones, labor analysts said, the union and the company agree to drop their civil claims when a settlement is reached.
When Pittston joined the union in asking U.S. District Judge Glen Williams to let bygones be bygones, he reduced the federal fines he levied during the strike from $960,000 to $280,000.
When they asked McGlothlin to reduce his penalties, he agreed to drop the $12 million allocated to the company but said his orders "are not bargaining chips" that can be negotiated away.
Attorneys representing McGlothlin argue in Supreme Court briefs that the UMW "seeks now to be rewarded for its total disregard of court orders." A ruling against McGlothlin would "utterly eviscerate the efficacy of civil contempt sanctions," they wrote.
One of the attorneys, Frank Friedman of Roanoke, said if the UMW arguments are correct, "the court can't do anything in advance. The judge has to sit on his hands and do nothing until after the fact."
Jeffrey Sandman, a labor analyst with the Kamber Group in Washington, said, "To hold the union responsible in this case for all the acts of some individual members would be inequitable and could bankrupt the union."
Asked if the $52 million would bankrupt the union, UMW spokesman Jim Grossfeld said "it would have a major impact" financially and on union organizing and selective strike campaigns.
"The significance of this case goes well beyond the United Mine Workers of America," he said. "It could have a profound impact for U.S. labor-management relations."
by CNB