LABOR: Coal Prospects

Grey-maned John L. Lewis, looking more & more like an outsize Pekingese, sat last week at a collective bargaining table in Washington. Between chews on Corona perfectos and Doublemint gum, the United Mine Workers' astute old boss negotiated with the Southern Coal Producers' President Joseph Moody. In the next fortnight, the U.M.W.'s contracts with most of the nation's coal mines will expire; if satisfactory terms for renewal are not agreed on, the U.S. will again face a major strike.

Lewis was not saying publicly just what he wanted. Best guess: 1) a small wage increase for his 475,000 miners; 2) a boost in producers' royalty payments (now 30¢ a ton) to the union's welfare treasury; 3) a spread-the-work arrangement that would divide mining and employment more equally throughout the bituminous industry.

How much of this demand is Lewis likely to get without a strike? Best guess: probably some increase in royalty payments, but not much more. The chances of a prolonged shutdown appear fairly remote. Lewis is just as keenly aware as his bargaining opposites that a strike would be handicapped by several unfavorable factors: 1) industry has a stockpile of almost 80 million tons of bituminous coal on hand, enough to supply the nation for 85 days; 2) many coal operators are losing money; anthracite sales are being cut more & more by natural gas and oil competition, and operational costs are outstripping revenue; 3) the miners can't afford a long strike because a lot of them have been working only two or three days a week, and their pocketbooks are nearly empty.