Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 29, 1993 TAG: 9311290111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They hurled fistfuls of rocks that "hit us like a hailstorm," Adams, a replacement worker, told Circuit Judge Donald McGlothlin.
The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled arguments today on whether McGlothlin was justified in fining the United Mine Workers union $52 million for repeated episodes of violence and civil disobedience in its 11-month strike against Pittston Co.
Labor analysts say it's the largest civil contempt fine ever imposed by a U.S. 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 were excessive, and that they were unconstitutional, maintaining that the judge cannot assess fines to coerce people's behavior. The union further maintains that the strike settlement should have negated the accumulated civil fines.
On Nov. 6, 1992, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the fines, levied for each violation of rules McGlothlin had imposed on the strikers, were justified because the judge was trying to curtail violence. The court chastised the union for "its utter defiance of the rule of law."
On the same April day that Adams testified, gunfire knocked out power to one of Pittston's underground mines. McGlothlin said from the bench he didn't want the violence to escalate.
The judge announced that day 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 deployed several hundred state troopers to keep the peace - to Pittston and to the two counties in his jurisdiction.
The 327-day strike by 1,695 UMW members was called after Pittson eliminated health benefits for retirees. It drew international attention and labor support because of the use of women, children and nonminer supporters in sit-down demonstrations and because 99 miners took over a coal-processing plant for several days.
"I had never been arrested in my life," said coal miner Bill Patton, a demonstrator. "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. McGlothlin's hearings included testimony about rock throwing, shots fired into vehicles, spikes placed on roads, equipment sabotaged with dynamite, and "scabs" routinely beaten up.
McGlothlin's orders reportedly were violated 760 times; 400 of the incidents were proved, and two-thirds of them involved violence against people and property. There were 71 injuries.
In almost all strikes, even violent ones, labor analysts say, the union and the company agree to drop civil claims when a settlement is reached.
When Pittston joined the UMW in asking U.S. District Judge Glen Williams to let bygones be bygones, he reduced the federal fines he had levied during the strike from $960,000 to $280,000.
When they asked McGlothlin to reduce his penalties of $64 million, however, he agreed to drop only the $12 million allocated to go to Pittston. The remaining $52 million was still to go to the state and the counties. The judge said his orders were "not bargaining chips" that could be negotiated away.
Lawyers representing McGlothlin argue in U.S. 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.
Jeffrey Sandman, a labor analyst in Washington with the Kamber Group, a consulting concern that works with trade unions, 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 a $52 million fine would indeed bankrupt the union, UMW spokesman Jim Grossfeld said "it would have a major impact" 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