Evening star., 1949-06-29
Depleted Welfare Fund
Has Lewis in Tight
Spot, Owners Believe
By Jones Y. Newton
Sfor SioH Correspondent

Sfaf Sioff Conespeadsnt
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS,
w. Va, June 29.-Soft coal op-
orators today pictured John l..
Lewis and his United Mine Work
ers as being in tight spot after
they had rejected "for legal rea-
sons" his proposal for a three-oay
"stabilizing" work week in the in
dustry.
Many of the coal producers in
the national contract conference
here want to accept Mr.. Lewis
proposal for a short work week in
lieu of complete mine shutdown
when the miners return from va
cation next Tuesday, but they
were advised by their lawyers that
an agreement would be contrary
to the Federal Antitrust laws. The
present mine contract expires
Thursday at midnight. but wheth-
er there will be strike cannot be
determDied until the end of the
vacation period July S.
Welfare Fund Low.
The operators contended that
Mr.. Lewis was in no position to
conduct a long strike because
the building of the union well
fare and retirement fund depends
on production Of coal. The fund
is fed by payment of 20 cents per
ton on all coal mined. Mr.. Lewis,
apparently in anticipation of get
ting an increase in the royalty"
payments, has been spending
money from the fund, by way of
benefits to the miners, faster than
1t is coming in.
An operator spokesman said that
payments now are being made at a
rate of $12.000,000 a month, while
the income. when the mines are
working, is considerably ,ess than
that.
THAT put Mr. Lewis" the oper-
ator said. "of being between Scylla
and Charybdis. He can't put the
heat of long strike on us because
he must have those regular pay
ments into the welfare fund.
There is less than $25, 900 in
the fund at this moment"
The operators privately have no
objection to Mr.. Lewis assuming
the full responsibility and having
the miners work voluntarily" only
three days week through Use of
their liable and willing" clause.
An "Out" for Lewis.
That would provide an "out"
for Mr.. Lewis who this year is
faced with the position of trying
to get more" from an industry
which already is in the economic
doldrums. Reduction of lroduc-
tion, however. would soon remedy
that situation.
The operators. representing at
least two-thirds of national out
put, were meeting again today
with Mr.. Lewis and his men. They
conferred for more than three
hours late yesterday. They had
no formal announcement after the
session, but there was no doubt
but that the operators had turned
down the three-day a week pro-
posal with regrets" The oper-
ators even asked Mr.. Lewis if he
could see way whereby they
would escape the penalties of the
law If they agreed to the idea.
There will be further exploration
on that score.
One part of the Lewis proposal
which the operators did not like.
1t was learned, was his demand
that the three days of work should
be on Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday of each week, obvi-
ouSly to allow miners opportunity
to pick up other employment the
rest of the week. The mine own
ers contended that it would work
out much better for them to have
the pick of the three days to be
worked. In that way they could
tailor production to suit demands.
But Mr.. Lewis stuck to his pro-
posal that the three days had to
come at the beginning of the week.
Operators argued the Lewis plan
would increase their overhead"
costs.
Lewis Ired Over News Leaks.
MIR. Lewis began yesterdays
negotiations by castigating the
mine owners for the news leak"
over the last week end of his
three-day work week proposal.
The suggestion was supposed to
be top secret, and the fact that
the legal question was raised pub
licly cramped somewhat the con-
sideration of the proposition.
One thing was evident. and that
was Mr.. Lewis must find some
way of boosting the waning for
tunes of the coal industry before
he can expect to obtain increased
benefits by way Of a new contract.
From nearby Bluef1eld. Joseph
Z. Moody, president of the South
ern Coal Producers Association.
said that it had been made clear
to him that unless a new contract
Is worked out meantime. the
Southern mines will be struck
beginning July S.
Mr.. Moody has been negotiating
with the UNIV for more than five
weeks without apparent signs OF
progress toward agreement. The
larger White Sulphur conference
represents all producers except
the Moody group and the United
States Steel Corp. big Steel
meets MIR. Lewis again today here.
Chile shipped most Of its 1948
red wine o,1aput to Belgium, Swift