The Nation - News from Feb. 19, 1985

Gates remained locked at a coal company in Lobata, W.Va., that had ordered miners, on strike for 4 1/2 months, back to work. About 800 union members picketed outside in a standoff with company officials. Forty-eight employees of Sprouse Creek Processing Co. showed up as ordered but first demanded a contract, setting up a card table and folding chairs outside the mine and offering to sit down and bargain. Sprouse Creek officials kept the gates locked and said returning workers would have to fill out personnel forms and be fingerprinted and photographed--as any new employee--before being put back to work.