Militant lawyer Richard Trumka was elected overwhelmingly Tuesday as United Mine Workers president, ousting tobacco-chewing Sam Church Jr., in unofficial returns that made Trumka one of the nation's youngest union leaders.
'The rank and file has spoken loudly and clearly,' Trumka said at a news conference after he spoke to wildly cheering supporters.
'The rank and file says no more backward steps ... no take-away contracts ... organize the coal mines ... bring stability to the union, and that's what we're going to do starting tomorrow,' he said.
Church refused to concede, however, when he met with supporters at a Charleston, W.Va. hotel near midnight.
'I will not concede until all the paper votes are counted throughout all the locals of the UMW,' Church said. 'It's going to be a long night. The fight is not lost until all those votes are counted by the UMW.'
The 33-year-old Trumka, who grew up in a mining family near Pittsburgh, trounced Church in most of the large mining locals throughout Appalachia and even held a commanding lead in Church's home District 28 of Virginia.
Unofficial results from union tellers, with 651 of 868 locals reporting in the United States and Canada, showed Trumka with 72,816 votes (or 67.9 percent) to Church's 34,399 (or 32.1 percent).
'It's more here than meets the eye,' said a Church aide. 'I think the whole climate in America is that those people who are incumbents are in trouble. This has moved from the political scene to the labor scene.'
Trumka based most of his campaign on attacks of contracts Church negotiated with the bituminous coal industry since becoming union president in 1979 after former UMW President Arnold Miller retired due to poor health.
During his campaign, Church cited as his accomplishments few wildcat strikes in the coal fields and a better wage increase than many major unions received. He questioned whether Trumka worked long enough in the mines to seek office.
Church has come under continual criticism since the 1981 talks in which rank-and-file miners overwhelmingly rejected a tenative agreement with the industry and went on strike for 72 days to win back some concessions.
'With Rich Trumka at the head of the UMW, the operators know the days of take-away contracts are over,' was a key slogan during the campaign throughout the coalfields.
Trumka will be inaugurated as union president Dec. 22 for a five-year term.
His running mates in the campaign were Cecil Robert of West Virginia for vice president and John Banovic, president of Illinois' District 12, for secretary-treasurer.
Carroll Rogers, head of the union's District 31 in West Virginia, attributed the Trumka victory to the fact that he is 'an educated man who will be better able to deal with the coal operators.'
'We expected to run well,' said Trumka spokesman Joe Corcoran at the jubilant campaign headquarters. 'I'm not surprised at all.'
Earlier in the day, after he voted at a mine bathhouse of the Westmoreland Coal Co. near Appalachia, Va., Church was realistic when asked what he would do if he lost. 'Get my tools out and keep Westmoreland's jump running for them,' he said in miner's slang for a digging operation.
The election came at a time of sizeable layoffs in the industry, growth of non-union mines in the West and strains on the union's treasury.
Trumka worked as a miner while in college and was a union attorney under Miller's administration.
Church, who Miller picked as his running mate when he sought re-election five years ago, was known as a brawler during the early days as a national union official. He also tried some singing, cutting a record called 'Black Gold,' a song about why America should burn coal instead of oil.
During his three years in office, Church increased UMW cooperation with other unions and the AFL-CIO.
