Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 8, 1993                   TAG: 9307080065
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COAL PACT SIGNED WESTMORELAND COMES INTO FOLD

Westmoreland, a Philadelphia company with Virginia headquarters in Big Stone Gap in Wise County, was the last of four members of a new independent bargaining group to sign with the union.

Westmoreland and the UMW came to terms late last Thursday, said company spokesman Stephen Anderson. The pact affects 900 of the company's union employees.

When Westmoreland dropped out of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association last year to join a new group, the Independent Bituminous Coal Bargaining Alliance, company officials said they wanted to negotiate a new cooperative labor agreement with the union.

The company's last five-year contract with the UMW expired on Feb. 1, but the contract was extended until June 30 and negotiations continued.

Seglem said the agreement is designed to reduce health-care costs, account for special competitive conditions, provide flexibility in work and scheduling, involve employees more in the success of their mines and improve labor-management relations.

The other three companies in the new alliance - the Drummond Co. Inc. of Birmingham, Ala.; Jim Walter Resources Inc. of Brookwood, Ala.; and U.S. Steel Mining Co. of Pittsburgh - signed the labor agreement only hours before Westmoreland did.

The agreement covers 7,500 active union members in Alabama, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. Besides the four major companies, other companies and subcontractors signed "me-too" agreements, UMW President Richard Trumka said.

According to Trumka, the key provisions of the agreement are:

All job openings at existing, new or newly acquired mines will be filled first by laid-off or working union members.

A process will be established to enable miners, mine management and union leaders to cooperate to improve working conditions and productivity.

Current levels of health benefits will be maintained by a network of health-care providers created jointly by the union and management.

For the time being, wages and other conditions will remain the same as they were under the 1988 National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement.

When the strike-bound Bituminous Coal Operators Association finally settles with the union, the members of the independent group will be given the option of accepting the terms of that agreement, agreeing to the terms of some other existing UMW-coal company agreement or negotiating a separate wage contract.

The agreement is good for one year and does not have to be ratified by union miners, Anderson said.

The UMW and Westmoreland also settled a 5-year-old dispute over the operation of a company subsidiary in Kentucky. The settlement provides job opportunities for union members at the nonunion subsidiary and ends claims related to the dispute.

Speaking to the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday, Trumka said worker empowerment similar to that in the Westmoreland pact promotes world-class economic performance.

The union has an ongoing strike against BCOA companies in seven states, involving 14,000 miners. No Virginia companies are involved in that strike.

Associated Press provided information for this story.