ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210049
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, W.VA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
The United Mine Workers union and the nation's largest coal operators have agreed on pension and health benefit improvements in a contract due to expire in 1998, UMW President Cecil Roberts said Tuesday.
Roberts said the agreement will extend full pension benefits to UMW miners laid off since December 1993, regardless of age, as long as they have worked 20 years under a UMW contract.
``In the last three years there has been [coal company] bankruptcy after bankruptcy,'' Roberts said. ``Many, many miners have fallen through the cracks and lost a substantial amount of their pension.''
``No longer will miners who are laid off before they turn 50 have to sacrifice half the pensions they earned,'' Roberts said. ``They may have to wait until they're 55, but they'll get what they've earned.''
The only Virginia mine operator covered by Tuesday's agreement is Consolidated Coal Co. The Pittsburgh-based company operates mines in Buchanan and Tazewell counties.
The agreement also includes plans to hold early negotiating sessions in 1997, in advance of the 1993 contract's Aug. 31, 1998, expiration.
The 1993 contract was settled after a seven-month strike by 18,000 UMW members that was costly both to the UMW and to coal operators.
``That was a very good demonstration of how things should not be done,'' Roberts said.
Morris Feibusch, spokesman for the Bituminous Coal Operators Association in Washington, D.C., confirmed that an agreement had been reached but had no other comment.
Chairman and chief executive officer Irl Engelhardt of Peabody Holding Co., the nation's largest coal producer, said the agreement ``signals two more years of labor harmony, a beneficial situation for both sides.''
The agreement does not include any wage increases, but does provide for annual bonuses of $600 each in 1997 and 1998.
Miners' health care deductibles will be reduced from $1,000 per year per family to $750 a year, while a taxable health care bonus intended to cover the deductible stays at $1,000.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB