The following day the UMWA released a press statement in response to Murray’s latest antiunion move. The 60-day notice to shut the mine down is a "Trojan Horse," said UMWA secretary-treasurer, Carlo Tarley. The union official said Murray is playing a "cruel game with the workers’ emotions [to] pressure the union into agreeing to contract concessions sought by the employer."

Before the shift change on April 16, company officials gave miners copies of a press statement released that day titled, "United Mine Workers’ Actions and Statements a Dishonest Scam," along with two letters from Robert Murray to UMWA president Cecil Roberts and a copy of an amended version of the recently approved union contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators of America (BCOA).

Murray is the largest independent, family-held coal producer in the United States. His coal holdings include mines in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, and West Virginia. There are reports that Murray plans to open mines in Utah. Murray-owned mines produced more than 20 million tons of coal in 2000.

In 1995 when the mine reopened, the union agreed to a seven-year contract that now pays about $3 an hour less than miners earn under the BCOA contract. Miners at Murray are united in demanding that the wage gap, which weakens the entire UMWA, be closed. The seven-year contract expires at the end of the year.  
 
Concessions demanded
Wages are not the only issue at Maple Creek, as became clear when miners read Murray’s proposed amendments and deletions to the contract, which is now tabled. For example, the section on panel rights is deleted, and substantial deletions are made to the employer’s contributions to the pension plan. One $600 lump-sum payment is eliminated.

The contract also carries over the "Consolidated Memorandum of Understanding" from the previous seven-year agreement. This MOU is not liked because it contains several provisions that weaken the union, including a provision against "any strikes, walkouts, slowdowns, sympathy strikes...picketing or other unprotected concerted activities;" a draconian absentee program; and a contracting-out of work provision.

It is not too difficult to see why Murray wants the section on panel rights expunged from the amended BCOA agreement. In Ohio, Murray violated the contract he signed with UMWA Local 1810, which represents miners at Powhatan No. 6, by refusing to hire miners laid off from three North American mines he owns. Murray filed a charge with the NLRB in Cleveland, Ohio, arguing that these workers had no panel rights. The board dismissed this charge last fall and concluded that "panel rights and their application are nondiscriminatory and not violative of the [National Labor Relations] Act."

For the past three months, union negotiators have been working to arrive at a new labor agreement. The company has been offered the recently negotiated National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement, the same pact that the union is presenting to all other independent coal operators. U.S. Steel Corp. and Drummond Company, and RAG American Holding Co., Inc., signed the agreement in March and April respectively. The pact will cover UMWA members working at the latter company’s Cumberland and Emerald mines in Pennsylvania.

The UMWA’s position is that if "Murray wants an early agreement before the current contract expires, the 2002 agreement is what is on the table--without modifications."

The company’s objectives are also very clear. In Ohio, Murray was successful in opening Century Mine as a nonunion operation not far from Powhatan No. 6, a UMWA-organized mine also owned by Murray. In a similar effort, the company was planning to open High Quality Mine near the Maple Creek portal. For more than a year, construction crews have been working on installing a slope entrance. A few workers say that the work is near completion. Maple Creek officials now say that work was halted on the new mine two months ago. In contrast to the Century Mine experience, the union is determined to keep High Quality in the union and represented by Local 1248.  
 
Years of battle by the union
For several years, union miners have been locked in battle with Murray. In the fall of 1999, the union struck Maple Creek for three days over antiunion moves by the company. In December 2000 the Maple Creek local rejected a proposed contract by a vote of 335 to 10. The contract proposed an annual 30-cent-an-hour wage increase. Miners demanded that they be paid the same as BCOA miners. After the December vote, Murray was quoted in the Uniontown Herald-Standard as saying that union members "got greedy" and that "there are 500 people who will be in the unemployment line."

Last summer the union called "Memorial Days" to protest Murray’s opening of a nonunion mine in Ohio and his "abuse of hundreds of coal miners who have accepted frozen wages and made other sacrifices to keep the company’s operations afloat," according to a UMWA press release.

Many skirmishes have occurred over health and safety issues, violations of work rules, and unjust firings. Almost every day the company is hit with state and federal violations. Several times the mine, or sections of it, have been ordered shut down. There have been several dangerous incidents of unacceptable levels of methane gas reported in the mine. Maple Creek has one of the highest lost-time injury rates in the industry.

Workers were also fed up with the so-called company "awareness" meetings. In these bathhouse meetings, it was common for Murray to insult miners to their faces, as well as to hear countless slanders against the union. Murray’s unbecoming behavior has become widely known. The Pennsylvania regional office of the NLRB issued a formal complaint last October against Murray and Maple Creek president D. Lynn Shank for "threatening and vilifying Maple Creek miners’ representative, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and its officers."

Miners, their families, and working people in the coal fields were also bombarded for several months with full-page advertisements and highway billboards against the union. Ads appeared in all the major newspapers in southwestern Pennsylvania and southeastern Ohio. The union responded with its own full-page ads and wrote letters to counter the crude lies in Murray’s campaign.

On top of this, Murray has filed numerous defamation lawsuits with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the union and leading union officials. Most have been dismissed by the courts. Last fall the NLRB ruled against Murray who charged that the "Memorial Days" taken by miners were illegal. According to a UMWA summary, the federal board investigation "disclosed substantial evidence to support the Union’s assertion that it has significant disputes with Maple Creek...which are primary in nature" and that there was "a reasonable basis for the union to question whether Maple Creek intended to honor its commitment as to the High Quality Mine."

In January, U.S. District Judge William Standish dismissed a defamation lawsuit against UMWA officer Carlo Tarley, saying that he and the union "were acting for an arguably job-related reason to publicize issues regarding the ‘terms’ and ‘conditions’ of employment...in the context of a heated and ongoing labor dispute." Another federal judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit in February, saying that Tarley’s statements to the public about Murray’s treatment of his workers "typify the freewheeling debate intended to be protected and encouraged by federal labor law."

The latest assault on the union is one of the most serious, but Maple Creek miners are not intimidated. They have come to expect it and are preparing for more attacks ahead, including the likelihood of being laid off. In a recent letter to the membership Tarley said, "The union is committed to doing whatever we must to provide you with the best contract possible, but it appears that we will have to dig in and fight for it. So be it."

Frank Forrestal and Tony Lane are members of UMWA Local 1248 in southwestern Pennsylvania.  
 
 
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