No Peace in the Pits

As members of the strife-ridden United Mine Workers voted, last week for a president, the overriding hope was that the election would bring an end to the vicious internal bickering that has plagued the union for the past decade. Instead, the outcome of the three-way race seemed certain to aggravate the tension. The final tally will not be completed until July, but according to unofficial results, President Arnold Miller squeaked to a second five-year term with 40% of the vote. His archrival, Lee Roy Patterson, an influential member of the union's 21-member executive board, took 34%; U.M.W. Secretary-Treasurer Harry Patrick, a Miller friend turned foe, picked up 26%. And only half the 277,000 active and retired miners who were eligible to vote bothered to do so.

Miller, who ousted the corrupt regime of W.A. ("Tony") Boyle five years ago, appealed for unity. Said Miller: "It's time for [his opponents] to recognize who the enemies are--the operators." But Runner-Up Patterson, a onetime Boyle crony, criticized the way that the ballot was set up; his supporters had to mark nine different boxes to vote for his candidates, while Miller's backers could select the entire presidential slate by checking only one box. But U.M.W. officials ruled that Patterson failed to line up a complete slate and thus did not qualify for the single-box provision. Since Patterson commands heavy support on the U.M.W.'s executive board, he may be able to force a rerun of the election.

Sharp Stuff. In any case, Miller will have great trouble pulling the union together. He has been a poor administrator who has lost most of the union's once sharp staff. One example: Press Aide Bernard Aronson was fired for "insubordination"; Aronson is now Vice President Walter Mondale's chief speechwriter. Miller apparently won reelection because he wangled a national contract in 1974 giving miners a 54% raise over three years. When that contract expires Dec. 6, many miners hope he will score as well or even better.

But Miller is now in a much more difficult situation. Coal operators are angry because he is unwilling to curb wildcat strikes, which have increased to near-epidemic proportions in the Eastern fields. Miller has stated that he will insist on contract revisions that would give U.M.W. locals the right to strike over grievances. Miller also says he wants another big increase for the miners, but he will find the operators tight fisted. Last time around, the mineowners realized that they owed the workers a big raise to let them catch up with other unions. Now that U.M.W. wages and allowances average $9.30 an hour, the companies are under no similar pressure.

Further, the U.M.W. is losing support among miners; at least 40% of the nation's coal now comes from nonunion pits and strips. If Miller sticks to his demands, the companies can switch production to the largely nonunionized fields in the West, where productivity is generally higher anyhow.

Not since World War II, when President Roosevelt threatened to call out the armed forces to reopen struck mines, has the union played such an important role in the nation's wellbeing. As a keystone of his energy program, Jimmy Carter has called for a two-thirds increase in U.S. coal production by 1985. Given a united effort by companies and union alike, that goal would be attainable. But as long as the U.M.W. remains engaged in what almost amounts to a civil war, the outlook is dim.

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