Nation: At Last, Peace in the Coalfields

After 109 days, the miners reluctantly end their strike

Finally it was over. After 109 days, two abortive contract offers and untold expenditures of rancor, obstinacy and personal discomfort, rank-and-file members of the United Mine Workers voted late last week to end their strike. With union leaders promising that the 165,000 miners would return to their jobs on Monday and mine owners predicting that coal shipments would be back to normal within the week, the energy crisis that had been threatening—but never quite materializing—in a dozen Eastern Central states seemed to have passed.

As...