Dole Says Both Sides in Mine Strike Agree to Face-to-Face Talks
Labor Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole met with striking Pittston Co. coal miners today and announced that the company chairman and the union president have agreed to meet with her Saturday.
Face-to-face negotiations are the only way to settle the 6-month-old walkout, she said.
“I feel frustration with the impasse,” Dole said. “We’re talking about communities being torn apart and in some cases families torn apart as I’ve heard talking with miners this morning.”
The two sides have held bargaining sessions since the strike began April 5, but in separate rooms with federal mediators shuttling messages back and forth. About 1,700 miners in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky are on strike against Pittston Coal Group Inc., a subsidiary of Pittston Co.
Miners told Dole that the contract Pittston is proposing would reduce their health benefits, threaten the stability of the UMW pension fund and eventually break the union.
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