Usery Chosen to Mediate Long Coal Strike
Former Labor Secretary William J. Usery Jr. has been picked to mediate the six-month dispute between the United Mine Workers and the Pittston Coal Group, sources said Tuesday.
Labor Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole is to formally announce her choice today.
Two sources familiar with the decision, speaking on condition they not be identified, said that Usery, who in the last 25 years has helped settle dozens of bitter strikes, was Dole’s choice as “supermediator” for the coal strike.
The strike, which began April 5 in a contract dispute, has idled 1,700 miners in three states.
The major issue in the strike, which affects Pittston mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky, is health and retirement benefits. Pittston withdrew last year from the Bituminous Coal Operators Assn., the national bargaining arm of most coal companies, because it said the group had given the miners too much medical coverage in its contract.
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