Miners, Pittston Break Off Talks Until Wednesday
WASHINGTON — The United Mine Workers and Pittston Co. failed Saturday in a last-ditch effort to reach a pre-Christmas settlement in a bitter, nearly 9-month-old strike by 1,700 coal miners in three states.
Negotiations recessed Saturday evening with an agreement that both sides would return to the bargaining table Wednesday.
Government-appointed mediator W. J. Usery, who had said he wanted to end the strike by Christmas, told both sides he expected to settle the dispute by next Friday, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Usery had the two sides at the table virtually around the clock all week, taking a break at midnight Friday but calling negotiators back to the table Saturday morning.
The possibility of a settlement kept Labor Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole, who appointed Usery, in Washington--delaying a trip she had planned to North Carolina for Christmas.
The miners struck Pittston’s coal subsidiary April 5, walking off the job at mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky after working 14 months without a contract.
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