P. M. BRIEFING : UMW Members Get Pact Terms
United Mine Workers strikers won concessions on health care and pension benefits, and Pittston Coal Group got the ability to run its mines almost nonstop in a proposed settlement distributed to miners today.
If approved Monday by the UMW’s rank-and-file in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky, the settlement could resolve the union’s bitter and sporadically violent 10 1/2-month strike against the nation’s largest coal exporter by next week.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the proposed contract from a source who insisted on anonymity. Since Pittston and the union negotiators reached agreement on New Year’s Eve, they have kept contract details secret while both sides moved to dismiss lawsuits and fines stemming from the strike.
More than 2,000 union members packed into a building at the Russell County Fairgrounds this morning to receive copies of the 49-page contract, listen to pep talks by the union’s top officers and receive a briefing on the terms.
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