Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994                   TAG: 9406190060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CASTLEWOOD                                LENGTH: Short

UMW LIKES PITTSTON CONTRACT OFFER

"No concession; all gains," Ronnie Robbins, a UMW secretary at the local in Dante said after reading the labor agreement.

The current contract involving about 1,200 UMW members in Virginia and West Virginia will expire June 30. It was ratified after a bitter, 10-month strike that cost Pittston millions of dollars in production losses and cost the union $52 million in fines for civil disobedience and violent acts. The U.S. Supreme Court soon will decide whether the fines must be paid.

Pittston spokeswoman Susan Copeland could not be reached at the company's Lebanon office for comment on the new contract.

The workers received copies of the proposed contract and were briefed on the contents during meetings at local union halls Friday. They begin voting today, and results are expected late Monday.

In December, UMW members approved a five-year contract with the nation's largest coal operators that ended a seven-month strike. The walkout was expanded several times until 17,500 miners were on strike in seven states in Appalachia and the Midwest.

The terms of the contract included a wage increase of 40 cents an hour for each of the next four years. Pittston's underground miners now get paid about $17 an hour.

The national agreement included an annual wage increase of 30 cents an hour.

The Pittston contract would still provide 100 percent hospitalization coverage and increases dental and vision coverage by 20 percent.