Carter bid may lead to violence at mines

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 8

Carter bid may lead to violence at mines

NZPA-Reuter 'Washington President Carter of the United States, declaring that the country “cannot afford to wait any longer” for a coal-strike settlement, has invoked the Taft-Hartley Act in an effort to force miners back to work.

Mine owners and Government officials hoped the act, which allows the Government to seek an 80-day back-to-work court order, would get the mines operating again for the f’.'st time in nearly four months.

But the president of the United Mine Workers (Mr Arnold Miller), who himself said he would abide by the order, predicted that less than half of the 160,000 striking miners would reti n to work.

"And those that don’t go to work will try to stop those that do.” Mr Miller said in a telephone interview. "There are some of our members, the divisive ones, that don’t want to work no matter what hap-, pens.”

Initial reaction from the miners was mixed. Mr Carter said he had directed the Attorney-Gen-eral (Mr Griffin Bell) to make preparations for seeking the court order under the terms of the Taft-Hart-ley Act because negotiations between the U.M.W. and the coal-industry management were at an impasse.

Officials said they hoped to make a formal request for the order by tomorrow. The strike has forced power curtailments in manv states, caused job lay-offs in

the Mid-West, and is threat-l ening to inflict further harm; on the economy. Mr Carter announced the creation of a three-member j board of inquiry, as required under the Taft-Hartley Act, and the panel has held a brief meeting with the Labour Secretary (Mr Ray Marshall) and Mr Wayne Horvitz, chairman of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. They planned a public hearing on the strike today. The Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947 over a veto by President Harry Truman,

and it has been used by Presidents on 34 other occasions. Mr Truman himself used it seven times in 1948 when a series of industrial strikes threatened the economy.

In resorting to Taft-Hart-ley, Mr Carter said he wanted to make sure the country did not fall victim to “total breakdown of the collective bargaining” process.

Administration officials had said earlier that it was unlikely that industry-wide negotiations would be productive. Mr Marshall said company-by-company talks on regional negotiations involving individual U.M.W. branches were a possibility. A regional or company settlement could set the pattern for a new national agreement, the secretary said. Across coal-rich Appajlachia, most miners who i gathered in local headquar- | ters to watch Mr Carter’s i announcement on television (indicated they would not go back to work under TaftHartley, rnd would have favoured Government seizure of the mines. A senior White House official who insisted he not be identified, told reporters that the Administration was not considering a Government seizure or the mines.

Mr Carter made the an-i nouncement after the strik-| ing miners voted overwhelmingly in week-end balloting against a proposed three-year contract that would have settled the protracted strike. Miners cited a contract provision requirin’’ them to pay deductibles of up to SUS7OO for health care that has been free as one reason for their rejection. Opponents also did not like a provision giving coal companies the authority to fire wildcat-strike leaders and pickets.