Labour

UMWA pact signals victory
in lengthy strike at Pittston

By MARC YOUNG

The most significant strike in decades of
USS. history is over. On Feb. 20, 63 per cent
of striking Appalachian miners voted to
ratify a pact with the Pittston Coal Group.
And indications are, despite certain conces-
sions to the corporation, the United Mine-
workers’ long struggle was a victory.

A long struggle it was. April 5 saw 1,700
workers in Virginia, West Virginia, and
Kentucky walk off the job, convinced that
Pittston was set on breaking their union.
Ten months later the strikers, now famous
for their determination and their strike uni-
form of combat fatigues, have endured

police brutality, pro-business, fine-levying ©

courts, and the pain of divided communi-
ties.

What one commentator described as a
“virtual media blackout” didn’t help either.

On the other hand, they’ve enjoyed mass
support from church groups, trade unions
inside and beyond the United States, and
individuals and organizations everywhere

interested in workers’ lives and democratic
rights.

“We know we won this strike,” UMWA
spokesperson Gene Carroll told the Trib-
une, “because of international solidarity in
our country and Canada, and other coun-
tries too.”

The union originally planned to withhold
the proposed contract from its membership
until $64 million in fines were disposed of in
a way favourable-to: the strikers. But six

weeks of wrangling passed without a resolu-
tion of the matter, and UMWA decided it
was “‘no longer fair to hold up the vote.”

Carroll expressed the view that resolving
the fines issue remains an essential task, and
should be a major concern for the whole
labour movement. It was apparent through-
out the strike that the ease with which Vir-
ginia justices imposed financial penalties
was bound to have dire implications for the
ability of any union to defend itself.

On the agreement itself, Carroll said that
it’s a package that meets the needs of the
membership. “It’s a good contract for job
security, and medical benefits ... and it’s a
good contract for the company.”

Specifically, the agreement maintains
and even improves provisions in these areas.
There is strengthened protection for
members against company re-organization.
“Under most conditions,” a panel com-
posed of UMWA members will fill four of
five openings at new operations of the par-
ent company’s non-unionized subsidiaries.

Also, “if production on PCG coal lands
is sub-contracted to another operator, 19 of
20 job openings at those contractor opera-
tions will go first to UMWA classified
employees laid off from PCG operations,”
reads a contract summary issued by the
union. These provisions, it is felt, will check
the decline in the corporation’s employment
of organized labour.

The four-year agreement also provides
for additional employment, adding a fourth
shift at many operations.

The 80th
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$10 general

The Vancouver Peretz Institute and
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival are proud to
present

Saturday March 17 8pm

Vancouver Peretz Institute, 6184 Ash St., (at 45th)

A concert that celebrates the life and work of the
author and composer who gave us "I Dreamed I Saw
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Health care provisions are of major
importance. One hundred per cent com-
pany funding was retained, as in the last
national agreement. Pittston had wanted to
cut its contribution to 80 per cent. The
company will pay health costs after the first
$1,000 of a worker’s expenditure, as well as
$500 at the beginning of every six-month
period to defray that first $1,000.

A lump-sum payment of $10 million by
Pittston to the 1950 benefit fund: is also
planned, as well as contributions to a 1974
fund.

The deal also provides for a wage
increase of $1.20 an hour. Pension benefits
are maintained, and the company agreed
not to pull out of the 1974 multi-employer
plan.

Concessions from the union include an
agreement to allow the re-organization of
work schedules. Sunday shifts will be intro-
duced, although, says Carroll, there won’t
be any between 8 a.m.and 4 p.m.

The company will retain the option of
introducing 28-day shift rotations which
could see miners putting in seven consecu-
tive days of work. A 10-hour day, four-day
work week is also planned for some estab-
lishments, which will, on the positive side,
allow for 52 fewer working days per year for
miners affected.

While the margin of support for the deal
was clearly decisive, it was by no means
overwhelming, and in some places negligi-
ble. While 71 per cent of West Virginia
miners voted yes, a slim majority of Ken-
tuckians said no to the deal (51 per cent).
The bulk of the votes were from Virginia,

and their vote of 62 per cent in favour,

carried the day.

U.S. union leaders heard the news of the
vote at the AFL-CIO convention in Bal
Harbour, Florida, and reportedly wel-
comed the result as a sign that their move-
ment has broken the chain of defeat that’s
bound American organized labour through-
out the Reagan era.

It remains to be seen what lessons that
leadership will extract. Commentators have
gone to some length to show that any suc-
cess Pittston workers were set to realize was
thanks to their ability to mobilize commun-
ity support, use innovative tactics including
sit-downs and plant occupations, and
assume that intelligent confrontation would
get them further than capitulation.

For her part, U.S. Labour Secretary Eli-
zabeth Dole, present at the AFL-CIO meet-
ing, responded to news of the settlement by

calling it an important example of success-
ful collective bargaining.

Stomping the GST

Pro-Canada Network chair Tony Clark,
economist Marjorie Cohen, singer-song-
writers Holly Arntzen, Lindsay Kenyon
and Linda Chobotuck and playwright John
Gray are among the headliners at the big
GST Stomp cabaret and dance set for
March 17 at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre,
805 E. Pender St. in Vancouver. It’s spon-
sored by the B.C. Coalition against “Free”
Trade.

Tickets, at $10, or whatever you can
afford, are available from a variety of loca-
tions, including Co-op and Octopus Books
on Commercial Drive, CAIMAW offices,
707-12th St. in New Westminster, the Pro-
vincial Council of Carpenters at 2806
Kingsway and the Telecommunications
Workers at 5261 Lane St. in Burnaby.
Doors open at 7 p.m. with the cabaret set
for 7:30. Dancing, with the Latin sounds of
Santiago, starts at 9:30.

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Pacific Tribune, March 5, 1990 « 11

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