The Nation - News from July 11, 1989

A three-day cooling-off period called by the United Mine Workers was shattered almost as soon as it began. The owner of a security agency working at a non-union mine in Boomer, W. Va., said about 150 people ambushed his employees around dawn, injuring several guards. An explosion along a road near Nora, Va., damaged an office trailer owned by Clinchfield Coal Co. In Matewan, W. Va., union supporters confronted a convoy of non-union coal trucks. State police said four trucks were disabled and one non-union driver was hurt. Gunfire also was reported at a Mingo County mine. More than 30,000 UMW members in Appalachia and the Midwest have staged a wildcat strike in support of miners on strike against Pittston Co. in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky after working for 14 months without a contract.