THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407060008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
When an individual defies a lawful court order, the court can imprison that person for contempt. But when faced with contempt on the part of an organization, a striking union for instance, what can a judge do to enforce law and order? Nothing, says the U.S. Supreme Court.
In one of its last decisions before recessing for the summer, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned $52 million in civil contempt fines levied against the United Mine Workers. The issue was the union's organized defiance of Russell County Circuit Judge Donald McGlothlin Jr.'s orders to cease random gunfire, rock-throwing, jack-rockings and fire-bombings during the 1989 Pittston Coal strike.
Five years ago at this time, the coalfields of southwest Virginia seemed as dangerous as a Beirut street corner. State troopers were diverted in large numbers to patrol the coalfields. That the police were able to keep anyone from getting killed was no small miracle, but several people were seriously injured by UMW violence.
After then-Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole pressured Pittston and the UMW into a settlement, the union and the company publicly kissed and made up, and they jointly asked McGlothlin to vacate the fines. Nothing doing, McGlothlin ruled. The UMW's campaign of violence was an affront to the rule of law.
According to UMW President Richard Trumka's sanitized version of events, the fines were not at all related to jack-rockings and such. Rather, he claims they were levied ``simply because we stood up for our retirees and widows. . .
Nonsense. Judge McGlothlin did not simply grab the amount of fines out of thin air. He first warned union leaders, and when they chose to defy his court orders, McGlothlin meticulously tallied fines while then-Attorney General Mary Sue Terry dashed for the tall grass. The total amount of fines was large because the UMW's thuggery was extensive.
According to the Supreme Court, criminal, not civil, charges should have been brought. But the standard in criminal proceedings is much higher than in civil ones. Witnesses and juries will be intimidated. Violence will have been effectively licensed.
If current state law does not explicitly call for substantial civil fines against violent union organizations, then the Allen administration should push for such a law. Trumka and those inclined to imitate him might find legal nose-thumbing more difficult if bankruptcy looms. Organized violence is not the way business ought to be conducted in this country. by CNB