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    Vol.63/No.3           January 25, 1999 
 
 
Miners: Solidarity Won Contract With No Concessions At Reading Anthracite  

BY PETER SEIDMAN AND CANDACE WAGNER
POTTSVILLE, Pennsylvania - In early 1998, the Reading Anthracite Coal Co. demanded that members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at their strip mine and breaker agree to a 12-hour-day, seven-day-a-week schedule, without overtime pay after eight hours' work or for weekends. Members of UMWA Locals 1686 and 7891 voted down two such proposed contracts. Finally, in November, the company backed down and agreed to a contract that included no take backs, as well as small wage and benefit increases. This third offer was approved by the union membership.

Workers at the afternoon shift change on December 30 were happy about pushing back the company demands. "Solidarity," declared one worker as he hurried for the bus into the pit. "We showed them that we would stick together."

Union participation in solidarity rallies with UMWA members on strike at Jeddo Coal in nearby Hazelton had sent a message to the Reading bosses, said John Downey, president of UMWA Local 1686, in a phone interview.

Miners coming off day shift stood around in the bitter cold to discuss with Militant correspondents the attacks facing anthracite miners today. They explained that until 1994 the UMWA bargained collectively for a common contract with all four major anthracite coal companies. They felt all the miners had been in a stronger position then.

Anthracite, which is harder and hotter burning than the more widely used bituminous coal, is concentrated in eastern Pennsylvania. At the turn of the century 140,000 workers mined the coal here. Now the number is below 1,000. The coal mined at Reading is shipped to Canada for paint manufacture.

Downey, who is a working miner, said the new contract includes a wage increase of $1.05 over its four-year duration, increased personal days, and an increase in the company contributions to retirement pensions. Referring to the 12-hour day demanded by the company, Downey said, "The men refused to work under conditions like that."

Downey described the hazardous conditions in the mine. Much of the equipment that digs out and hauls the coal is not sturdy enough for the poundage the company seeks to handle, he said, and serious injuries have occurred. Since the new contract was ratified, a 15-minute coffee break and safety check on one of the mining machines was eliminated. Now the workers on that equipment go eight hours without a break and preventive maintenance is not done.

In the last six months, management personnel have taken to watching the workers through binoculars from a trailer above the mine. Downey believes this is designed to justify further layoffs. One hundred miners now operate the mine, down from 300 several years ago.

Members of the UMWA have produced a T-shirt identifying with the "Molly Maguires," Irish immigrant miners who led a fight for decent wages and working conditions in the anthracite mines in the 1870s. Franklin Gowen, a coal magnate, accused the miners of being part of a secret Irish terrorist organization that he labeled the "Molly Maguires." He claimed that the miners' aim was the destruction of society or alternately, communism. Following frame-up trials, 19 miners were hung in Pottsville and a nearby town between 1877 and 1879. The T-shirt worn by some UMWA members today reads "The Molly's were Men."

Candace Wagner and Pete Seidman are members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

 
 
 
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