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If
the Tennessee Valley Authority is allowed to purchase Peabody Coal
Company, coal miners who would then be working for the Federal agency
would be bound by federal law not to strike, the TVA says. That
is the official view of the agency as explained to the Eagle by TVA
information chief Paul Evans last week.
Asked if the agency was aware that coal miners
have traditionally insisted on the right to strike, Evans said, "I
have nothing else to say."
Evans' statement is reflective of the tight
information security clamp that has been placed on the whole
TVA-Peabody-affair.
TVA's bid to purchase the world's largest coal
company came under more fire last week as Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.)
announced that the Senate Public Works Committee would conduct a
"full inquiry" into the proposed purchase. Baker said
the offer to purchase Peabody "must not be treated
routinely."
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He promised a full
inquiry into the issue and not "just a philosophical inquiry."
Baker also said he was going to co-sponsor legislation
introduced last week by Tennessee Senator Bill Brock to require the TVA
board to hold open meetings. For the past 41 years the TVA
board has met in secret.
During the past six months the Mountain Eagle
has been denied admission to each board meeting. Closed board
meetings, Sen. Brock said, "only increase resentment and
hostilities at a time in which TVA must do all it can to build public
confidence in its policies."
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No
top UMW officials could be reached for comment this week on TVA's bid for
Peabody. The UMW District 23 office in Madisonville, Ky., which
represents several thousand Peabody miners, said it had no comment on
the move. District 23 official Leroy Patterson did not return a
phone call when the Eagle advised his secretary that TVA miners would
not have the right to strike.
Peabody at present produces about 70 million
tons of coal each year at mines in 12 states and Australia. About
75 per cent of that coal is produced by stripmining. TVA Chairman
Aubrey Wagner this week said that the agency probably would sell
Peabody's Australian mine if the purchase is made. Wager said that
TVA hopes the sale of the Australian mine and other foreign holdings
would pay a substantial part of the 1.2 billion dollar bid that TVA has
reportedly made for the company.
Peabody owns coal reserves totaling about nine
billion tons. That is enough coal to last the nation ten years at
present rates of consumption if all the nation's coal were produced by
Peabody mines alone.
The final decision on whether the TVA will be
allowed to make the purchase will be up to the Federal Trade Commission
which is ordering the sale of Peabody by its parent company, Kennecott
Copper.
A spokesman for Sen. Baker told the Eagle that
the Senate inquiry into the purchase will not begin until the new
Congress convenes in January.
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