GALATIA, Ill. -- State police today patrolled the construction site of a non-union coal mine where 1,000 striking United Mine Workers union members set fires and tore down fences in a two-hour rampage.
About 14,500 UMW members staged a wildcat strike Tuesday to protest construction of the Kerr-McGee Coal Corp. mine. Industry officials said the strike shut down all but four coal mines in Illinois.
UMW officials were unavailable for comment on the illegal strike.
About 1,000 mine workers gathered at the construction site 3 miles east of town Tuesday, setting fires to two trailers and a pickup truck and tearing down 2 miles of 8-foot chainlink fence circling the area.
A one-story wood structure used as an office by Kerr-McGee, which expects to employ 600 to 700 people at the mine when it reaches full production in 1987, also was destroyed by fire.
Four National Guard helicopters lobbed tear gas at the mob and state police from four districts were dispatched to end the two-hour melee.
Two state troopers suffered minor injuries, and one person was arrested and jailed for possessing stolen property.
A spokesman said state troopers would maintain patrols in the area through today.
Before the disturbance was quelled, Saline County Circuit Judge Michael Henshaw in Harrisburg issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting further interference at the mine site and limiting the number of pickets to two at each entrance.
He scheduled a hearing on the injunction for Aug. 28.
'We're not going to let non-union people come down here and take advantage of conditions that we worked (to get) for a long time,' one miner railed.
'We lay our lives on the line every day below. We're not going to let these guys come in and take away safety conditions we have gained,' another miner said.
Donna McFarland, a Kerr-McGee spokeswoman in Oklahoma City, said as soon as the area was under 'proper control,' fence builders will be called back to erect a new fence. She said damage at the site had not been determined.
Mrs. McFarland said the company is determined to complete construction of the mine. She said the construction work is being done by contractors and that Kerr-McGee will not be doing any hiring until the mine starts producing coal -- scheduled in 1984.
'At that time, it will be up to the employees as to whether they want to belong to a union,' she said. She said two Kerr-McGee surface mines in Wyoming 'happen to be non-union but Kerr-McGee has union employees among its refinery, nuclear and chemical workers.'
The Illinois Coal Association said the wildcat strike stopped all coal mining in the state except for four mines operated by Sahara Coal Co. near Harrisburg. The Sahara miners are members of the Progressive Mine Workers of America.
Some of the rampaging miners chased television cameras away and threw dirt at reporters. A roll of film was tossed over a fence, and one reporter's tires were slashed.
