Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-03-17
Mine Owners 10 Reply
To Lewis Demands al
Farley Tomorrow
By jones Y. Newton

WV wal OpCl dtOIS Will lake over
the stage in the National Bitumi-
nous Coal Wage conference at the
Shoreham Hotel tomorrow, giving
their answer publicly to John L.
Lewis demands for higher wage for
his miners, shorter working time, a
union health and welfare" fund
and his charges that the industry,
through neglect, killed and injured
thousands of workers.
The operators are working against
time and largely in the dark for Mr..
Lewis so far has carefully avoided
tipping his hand as to specifically
what he wants in the way of higher
pay or any other of his nine general
proposals. -----.. .-,
Mr.. Lewis definitely has the mine
owners under the pressure of time.
He has indicated he would terminate
the present mine wage agreement
April /, and barely two weeks re-
main in which to reach agreement
on a new contract. 1t required a.
days last year to draft the present
agreement, and that was a record
short time for the industry.
Operators Preparing Answer.
The conference was in recess yes-
terday and today and the operators
are devoting the time to preparing
their answer to Mr.. Lewis. A meet
ing to work out final details of their
case was scheduled today. The plan
calls for the principal answer to
the miners to be delivered by
Charles O'Neill, representative of
Pennsylvania soft coal interests and
spokesman for the owners.
After the operators have had their
say before the public, they will get
down to the business OF actual ne
gotiations with the miners in closed
sessions. This will be done by a
small committee of seven operators
and an equal number of United
Mine Workers. Just when the con-
ference will get down to serious
business depends on how long the
operators take in answering Mr..
Lewis and what he may say in re-
buttal.
Terms of the present contract pro-
vide for 10 days notice of reopening
by either side, then l5-day period
for negotiating a new agreement
On expiration of the Is days, notice
of termination may be given to take
effect five days later. In this in
stance, the Is days will be upI
March 81 and Mr.. Lewis then will
be free to give the termination
notice. He has indicated he will
do this unless a new agreement is
made.
Two Issues Are Difficult.
On past performance, the miners
will not work unless they have a
contract. Mr.. Lewis served notice
under the Smith Connally Act,
March 2, that his union would strike
If necessary to support their de-
nands.
Besides the issue of wages and
hours, the real posers in the mine
workers new demands are the
"health and welfare" fund and their
demand for recognition of the right
of supervisory workers to join the
UNIV. The latter two issues will be
difficult to compromise, the opera
tors believe, but they hope it can be
worked out somehow.
When Mr.. Lewis last Tuesday,
presented his demands in general
terms that appeared mild in COM
parison to his proposals of past
years and said all the issues were |
negotiable, the operators were en-
thusiastic that agreement could be
reached without a strike. Now they
are not SO sure. The mine leader
later showed his belligerency of old
and consumed the entire first week
of the conference in presenting his
case publicly. He was tough and
minced no words on the operators.