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| A socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people Vol. 64/No. 25  June 26, 2000
Coal miners strike firm; P&M walks out of talks BY JACK WARD AND JAN MILLER TSE BONITO, New Mexico--Negotiations between the miners' union and the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Co. (P&M) broke off hours after they began June 7. These were the first talks with the company since the strike began May 15. United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 1332 represents workers at P&M's McKinley mine in Tse Bonito, New Mexico. In the talks the union presented a package of proposals to the company, but after several hours the company rejected the union's offer. According to the Gallup Independent, "With the break-off of negotiations, the union's revised package was dropped and Local 1332 said things now stand where they were on May 12, the last day of bargaining." No new negotiations are scheduled. P&M refuses to budge on three key issues--work scheduling, pay, and pensions. The company is demanding union members receive overtime only after working 40 hours in a week, instead of after 8 hours in a day as has been the case. The company is seeking a free hand to institute weekend work and a 12-hour workday. Lawrence Oliver, president of UMWA Local 1332, explained the company wants contract language that will give them "a wide open field" in setting schedules and could lead to people working "12-hour days and every Saturday without any extra pay. The company wants to pay annual bonuses in lieu of wage increases over the next six years. The bonuses would range from $200-$500 a year, totaling $1,800 by 2006. The union's package included a proposal for a 60-cent-an-hour wage increase each year for the life of the contract. "The company's offer would mean cutting workers' wages by $15,000-$20,000 a year," Oliver said. Workers cannot collect a full pension until age 62, and only a partial pension at 55 no matter how many years they have worked at the mine. The union wants a "20 and out" clause so that all miners with 20 years in the mine can draw a full pension if the P&M closes the mine. The company says it may close in 2006 when their contracts with power plants end. P&M altered its demand that a new contract include urging workers who are Navajo to drop the company health plan in exchange for $100 a month and for the workers to use the Indian Health Service on the reservation. More than 90 percent of the mine workers are Navajo and workers considered the company demand discriminatory. Now P&M said it will offer the $100 a month option to all employees. Union negotiators in their proposed package agreed to accept this concession. "Production is already at the maximum. The company has even bragged about the major increase in productivity in the last two years. And this is what they offer us!" Oliver said. Several other strikers made similar remarks on the picket line. No union members have crossed the line at McKinley and strikers continue to receive solidarity. The New Mexico AFL-CIO has provided a cargo truck full of food and is bringing another one this week. No negotiations have occurred or are scheduled with UMWA Local 1307 at the P&M mine in Kemmerer, Wyoming. In a June 13 article, the Casper, Wyoming, Star Tribune reports, "Union officials said the two sides were so far apart in their negotiations that the union membership never voted on a company offer prior to striking." Both contracts are being negotiated by David Smith of Institutional Labor Advisors, a notorious antiunion lawyer who was hired by A.T. Massey in 1984 and Pittston Coal in 1989 when those companies tried to break the UMWA. To send messages of solidarity and donations to Local 1332 write: UMWA Local 1332, PO Box 3750, Window Rock, AZ 86515. To contact the Kemmerer strikers write: UMWA Local 1307, P.O. Box 261, Diamondville, WY 83116.
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