Labor Disputes in the Coal Industry Remarks Announcing a Negotiated Settlement.

I've just talked on the telephone with the representatives of the Bituminous Coal Operators and also the United Mine Workers. And I'm glad to announce that the United Mine Workers and the coal operators have agreed to a negotiated settlement of their contrast dispute.

This is the outcome toward which all of us have been working so hard, especially Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall. We've been devoted to this; it's one on which our country should feel both gratitude and pride. It was because we believed in the free process of collective bargaining that I have been so determined to give that process every chance to work. It has worked. And the settlement it has produced is better for everyone involved-for the mineworkers, the mineowners, and the public—than would have been the drastic steps that I was prepared to take this evening if the negotiating process had failed.

Although a settlement has been reached, it will not be final until it is studied and democratically ratified by the members of the United Mine Workers. Before I close, I would like to speak directly to them.

The work you do in the mines is sometimes dangerous and always difficult. No one can visit a coal mine, even for a short time, as I have, without coming away with a vivid sense of respect and appreciation for the job you do. Yours is a historic struggle. Whenever there has been progress in the mines, whenever there have been improvements in pay or in safety conditions or in health conditions, it's been because you fought for it. Your dedication to justice in the mines has been matched only by your dedication to your country whenever it needed you, whether in war or in peacetime. The agreement that has been reached today is no different. You struggled for it, and it is a significant achievement.

The choice is now yours to make. But I hope that you will follow the lead of your bargaining council and ratify the negotiated settlement. This agreement serves the national interest, as well as your own interests and those of your families. If it is not approved without delay, time will have run out for all of us, and I will have to take the drastic and unsatisfactory legal action which I would have announced tonight.

The miners and the operators share with the public one overriding interest, which is to resolve the long-term problems of your industry.

I will now appoint a Presidential commission, which has already been discussed with you, to work with union and management to find answers to the basic questions of health, safety, and stable productivity. In the meantime, I offer my congratulations and my sincere thanks to those who have made the collective bargaining process work.

Thank you very much.