Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 2, 1993 TAG: 9308020069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
Kirk also said his concerns about the nation's coal strike are increasing each day the 12-week-old walkout continues.
"As the summer drags on, as people's paychecks come less and less, as the coal supply dwindles, all of that will be factors in what happens as far as public safety's concerned," Kirk said.
"None of them are positive aspects," he said. "But we will handle each one of them as they come up."
Kirk's agency has been busy with the strike recently.
On Saturday, 25 troopers were called to open the entrance to Eastern Associated Coal Corp.'s Federal No. 2 mine in Blacksville, which was being blocked by parked cars and at least 200 miners. Several other troopers were put on alert and sent to areas near the scene.
Earlier in the week, state police arrested 64 people in a sit-down strike staged by UMW pickets in Boone County.
The Logan detachment still is investigating the slaying of a non-union subcontractor shot July 22 as he was driving across a UMW picket line.
Saturday's blockage ended without injuries when Gov. Gaston Caperton appointed Kirk to investigate the miners' grievances, a duty the superintendent plans to begin today.
"As it turned out, nobody was hurt, there was no property damage and the traffic violations were issued," Kirk said. "Any time we have a situation like that where we have no injuries, no property damage, and can resolve the issue, I consider that a success, a complete success."
But an official for the coal operators was infuriated.
"To me it's just inexcusable that a group of people could block a public road for 20 hours," said Tom Hoffman, spokesman for the Bituminous Coal Operators Association.
"Surely the governor's got the ability to order the state police to take action," Hoffman said. "Apparently the state, whether it was at the governor's level or the state police level, decided this was a negotiating situation instead of an unlawful act."
Hoffman also blasted the UMW.
"I think that this is an attempt by the union to divert attention from themselves," he said. "They're getting that attention because they've been engaged from almost the beginning of this strike Thom Kirk State Police Superintendent in violent and unlawful acts."
The UMW's national spokesman, Jim Grossfeld, disagreed.
"Our members have been urged to engage only in peaceful picketing and have maintained discipline in the face of company provocation," Grossfeld said.
Hoffman said there are no new negotiations planned in the strike, which involves 17,000 union members in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. A major issue is whether new jobs will be union or non-union.
Several troopers were sent to Blacksville on overtime, while others were put on alert, Kirk said. That kind of expense on a regular basis could decimate his overtime budget, Kirk said.
The governor or either side can ask for federal intervention, but Kirk said he hopes to avoid that.
"We spend months building up rapport with both coal operators and picketers," Kirk said. "Both of them are people who live in our community.
"Usually whenever federal authorities are sent in . . . they're people from outside the community and sometimes they're not responded to quite as well by the community," he said.
Kirk said he has one other option.
"If I don't have anybody to send, we're out of time, then I guess no one will respond," Kirk said.
by CNB