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Show OPERATORS HIT GOAL UNION AIM NEW YORK, Feb. 1 can-Soft coal producers estimated today the lncieejed'wsges and shu'lei hums demanded by thaUnitedMine Workers would Increase the country's coun-try's coal bill by at least 270,-000,000 270,-000,000 a year. Philip .Murray, vice president of the miners' union. Immediately challenged this figure. He told reporters re-porters the 10-hour work week and 15 per cent pay Increase the miners min-ers ask for in their new agreement with the operators would "not by any means" cost 80 cents a ton. The operators malntalnsd their estimate was conservative. Their spokesmen, Charles P. O'Neill, ssid they had not Included the miners' demand for a guaranteed annual Income at 11300 in their calculations. Demands Are "Amusing" No one can tail what they would coat," O'Neill ssid. He called ths miners' demands "amasing" and "utterly Impossible. And this sentiment sen-timent echoed among the operators. opera-tors. The conferees pryared today to argus for a few l.urs and than turn ever the negotiations to a sub- committee. The present agreement doea not expire until midnight March L If precedent In drafting previous agreements la followed, the sub- committee will recess for 1 " few weeks before give and take negotiations nego-tiations are started in earnest Only ths commercial mines of the Appalachian production area reaching along the Appalachian mountains from central Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania to Tennessee are affected directly by the agreement to be drafted by the Joint conference here. These mines turn out about two-thirds of ths country's annual1 soft coal production. Oiairsl Scale Base AO ether soft coal miners' wagss end hours, however, are based on the Appalachian seals. Most minors are paid by tha ton, but tha entire soft coal wage structure struc-ture la based en the pay of the mine mule driver, now 13 SO in westsrn Pennsylvania and M.10 In southern West Virginia. Ths present agreement agree-ment calls for a lo-hour week. The union now asks to Increase the mule driver's dally pay to fe In western Pennsylvania and S3.M In the south. The miners also esk an increase of 18 cents a ton In the combined cutting and loading load-ing rata for those men who work by the ton, 20 per cent Increase for deadwork (slate picking and the like), and a 28 cents a ton raise lor pick mining. The operators counter with a demand de-mand for a 40-hour week with a 15 per cent decrease In the hourly rata (the same pay each day for an extra hour's work) and ne change la tha tonnage rates. |