Proposed cuts in blacklung benefits. — “P! pro'e

' and sub-contract work to scab outfits, ©

with no regard to job security of UMWA
members.

Up in arms over the new pact, the:

_ Tank and file rejected it by a landslide
_ Vote of more than two to one and vowed
to remain out on strike.

The coal companies, stunned by the
Tank and file’s militancy, took two
_ Weeks before they came back: to the
_ Dargaining table.

In the meantime, miners set to work
Shutting down scab mines to cut off the
flow of non-union coal. After several
tense days of confrontations between
Miners and security guards, the largest

_ Non-union operation in West Virginia,
the Marrowbone Complex in Mingo
County, was shut down tight. Miners

_ throughout West Virginia, eastern Ohio,
eastern Kentucky, Illinois, and other
Tegions, halted the movement of scab
Coal.

Serious confrontations erupted in

_ astern Kentucky, Ohio and West Vir-

| Binia, as scab operators, using armed
Convoys and employing professional
8un thugs, attempted to run non-union
Coal. The unionists battled these goons,
however, and most mines east of the
Mississippi remained closed.

Coal miners began to express confi-
dence as they prepared to stay out for as

Ong as it took to win a contract they
Could live with.

. __Inmid-April, several weeks after the
Strike began, the UMWA went back to

e bargaining table. The UMWA’s

Church, recognizing his error in stump-

ing for the first extremely unpopular

Proposal, presented the mine owners
a series of seven new demands.

—
mew

Among them was the reinstitution of
the penalty fee for non-union coal, the
strengthening of the clause dealing with

union job security on sub-leased and-

sub-contracted land and work, the
elimination of the hated Arbitration Re-
view Board grievance procedure, and
the dropping of a 45-day probationary

‘period for newly hired workers.

Brown and the coal operators, one by
one, stubbornly rejected every demand.
Talks broke off, and throughout April
and early May, negotiations continued
only intermittently, without any real
progress.

In the first part of May, support for
the miners, both moral and financial,
began in earnest.

Fraternal unions, both at the local
and regional ‘levels, began to make
preparations to aid the miners finan-
cially. Steelworkers ‘in the Chicago-
Gary area pledged their support,.as did
a number of local unions in such areas
as Pittsburgh and Detroit.

The International Union of Electri-
cal Workers voted $10,000 to the miners.
Clothing workers in Pittsburgh pre-
sented the miners with a $1,000 check.

Around the same time, reports
began circulating that a number of coal
and coal-related companies were start-
ing to feel the pinch of the strike. While
many utility companies, the biggest
users of U.S. coal, had 100-day
stockpiles on hand, many did not. Some
began to issue warnings that they were
running out of coal.

U.S. Steel, one of the industry giants,
admitted that it was losing $1 million a
day as a result of the strike. Operations
at its mills in Clairton, Pa., and Gary,

Ind., were partially curtailed.

Major railroads watched as their re-
venues plunged by better than 50% be-
cause there was no coal to be moved.
Companies involved in the booming ex-
port markets were also ‘‘seeing red
ink.”’ Coal docks which had witnessed a
huge backlog of ships waiting to be
loaded, such asin Hampton Roads, Va.,
became temporary ghost towns.

Yet, the big oil interests which domi-
nated the industry’s bargaining team
refused to budge, and the strike began to
edge on into its second month.

Labor support began to pick up
steam. Plant gate collections by steel-
workers in. Homestead, Pa., and elec-
trical workers in Milwaukee, for exam-
ple, raised several thousand dollars for
the miners. Many UMWA district of-

fices began to solicit funds from other.

unions. The UMWA national office,
however, failed to issue an official ap-
peal for funds, thus limiting the pos-
sibilities.

Negotiations continued throughout
May, with many obstacles being thrown
into the hopper by management. Fi-
nally, in the last week of May, the two
sides reached a second tentative pact.

Once again, the rank and file pre-
pared to review the agreement. The two
months of striking had forced the
operators to make further concessions.
They agreed to reinstate, and actually
raise, the penalty fee for buying non-
union coal. They also dropped their de-
mand for a 45-day probationary period,
and agreed to a partial elirnination of
ARB.

On the issue of job security, however,
the miners had not won such a clear-cut
victory. They did restrict the com-
panies’ right to sub-contract and sub-

lease somewhat by forcing them to
agree to hire union members wherever
possible, or where this was the case in
past practice.

But the contract’s wording did not
expressly prohibit companies from
going non-union under all circum-
stances. The other major problem re-
volved around the Arbitration Review
Board. The board was abolished, but the
pact called for all past decisions of the
board, 90% of which went against the

miners, to stand.

After a week of discussions in the
coalfields, miners voted on June 6 to ac-
cept the pact, though nearly 40 cast
their ballots in favor of continuing.the
strike, reflecting the strong militancy of
a large number of UMWA members.

Some 11,000 UMWA construction
crews, however, were still on strike.
Thus, the miners returned to work for
only one day, to collect their $150 back-
to-work bonus. Tens of thousands of
miners throughout the fields, honoring
the construction workers’ picketlines,
then refused to work. Most mines stayed
closed for another week, until finally a
tentative construction pact: was
reached.

The miners had ended their strike
exactly as they had begun it more than
two months earlier, with determination,
unity and solidarity.

The 1981 coal strike represents
another proud page the miners have
written in U.S. labor history. But the

majority of miners are now saying that —

the real battle is yet to come. |
While they were able to hold out for

Miners from District 6 of the UMW burn copies of the proposed first contract.

RS Aayeus Aq Soloug

. a
~ 1 JRror ences aod

two months this time around, UMWA
members feel that come 1984. when this

contract expires, they may not fare so
well.

So they are setting their sights on the
big task facing them: organizing the
non-union operations, and bringing tens
of thousands of new members into the
UMWA. The International has added
new union organizers to the staff, and
the rank and file is determined to help
these officers achieve the task ahead.

It’s the only way, the miners say.
that their slogan, ‘coal will be mined
safely, or it won't be mined at all,” can
be a reality, because to the miners,
safely-mined coal is union coal.

The UMW was able to win conces- ~
sions because of:

1. Refusal to succumb to cries of pov-
erty and threats of job loss by profit-
hungry big oil and the coal operators.

2. Rank and file militancy, which be-
came reflected inthe union leadership's
negotiating stance.

3. A mass struggle approach, dem-
onstrated by the two-day strike and pro-
test march against the Reagan Admin-
istration’s proposal to cut black lung
benefits.

4. Rank and file unity.

5. Solidarity from other unions and
organizations.

The miners have shown the entire
labor movement, as well as all forces
fighting big business and the Reagan
Administration's big business policies.
that with these ingredients—mass
struggle. unity. solidarity—victories
can be won.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUG. 7, 1981—Page 5