P.M. BRIEFING : Coal Miners Approve Contract, Ending Bitter 10-Month Strike

Appalachian coal miners voted nearly 2 to 1 to ratify their contract with Pittston Coal Group, union officials announced today. The vote ends a bitter 10-month strike that served as a rallying point for the American labor movement.

Pittston employees in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky voted 1,247 to 734 in favor of the pact. Sixty-three percent of the striking miners and laid-off workers endorsed the contract and 37% opposed it, according to figures provided by the United Mine Workers.

Under the agreement, Pittston will continue to pay 100% of miners’ health-care coverage, rather than forcing them to take on 20% of those costs. Pittston will also continue paying into an industry-wide pension fund from which it had withdrawn.

The strike drew widespread support from labor unions and religious leaders because of the use of peaceful civil disobedience--primarily mass sit-down demonstrations to block coal trucks--and because they believed Pittston was trying to break the union, a claim the company vigorously denied.