CBS Evening News - 1981-03-17
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Read a transcript preview of “CBS Evening News - 1981-03-17” from malgent, uploaded on 2026-02-18.
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Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:02] This is the CBS Evening News with Dan
[0:05] Rather.
[0:07] >> Good evening. Not since 1964 have the
[0:10] United Mine Workers and the soft coal
[0:12] industry reached agreement without a
[0:14] strike. 3 years ago, a 111-day strike
[0:18] caused widespread layoffs and production
[0:20] cutbacks. And today, just 24 hours after
[0:23] negotiators expressed optimism about a
[0:25] settlement, another strike seems
[0:27] unavoidable. Eric Ingberg reports.
[0:31] >> With the talk so badly stalled over such
[0:33] issues as work rules and pensions that
[0:35] no further meetings were even scheduled,
[0:37] mine workers President Sam Church set
[0:39] the wheels in motion for a strike.
[0:41] >> If we don't receive something from them
[0:44] in the next hour and a half and I'm
[0:47] going to send the bargaining council
[0:48] home.
[0:49] >> The call from the industry bargaining
[0:50] unit, the Batuminous Coal Operators
[0:52] Association, never came. Although both
[0:55] sides proclaimed a willingness to resume
[0:57] talks, Church conceded that with the 39
[0:59] member bargaining council headed home,
[1:01] there was no way to prevent at least a
[1:03] short work stoppage. Travel times, union
[1:05] contract procedures and the tradition of
[1:07] no contract, no work, guaranteed it. A
[1:10] shutdown would halt production of about
[1:12] half the nation's coal, generally in the
[1:14] East and Midwest. It would come at a
[1:16] time when power companies and other coal
[1:18] users have large stockpiles available,
[1:20] weakening the Union's hand. 20,000
[1:23] miners are already out of work, laid off
[1:26] by slack demand in some parts of the
[1:28] country. Now, all 160,000 UMW miners
[1:31] will lay down their tools at 12:01 a.m.
[1:34] March 27