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the main gate, trying to knock it down.  Finally, as the

delivery trucks began leaving, pickets pushed a security

guard beneath them, breaking both his legs.49

Two months into the strike, a bomb was discovered and

defused outside of the company's production facility.  One

week later, 17 strikers were arrested for assaulting

police officers.  Three days later, the number arrested

climbed by 23.  Sixteen of those were described as strik-

ers, the remaining 7 as outside agitators.

Borrowing tactics from the Daily News strike, the

Newspaper Guild publicly announced that their members would

follow company trucks to prevent distribution of the

paper.50   A company investigator speaking on condition of

anonymity confirmed they were good to their word.

"Strikers stole papers or set them on fire.  They threat-

ened vendors and roughed up nonstriking workers."  Retired

FBI agents hired to investigate claims of union misconduct

estimated that more than 200 misdemeanor complaints were

filed in the first nine months of the strike.

United Mine Workers

The United Mine Workers (UMW) strikes after 1983 dra-

matically illustrate an important truth: Injuries attribut-

able to strikes are inversely correlated with efforts by

state and federal law enforcement officials to control

union violence.  Lax law enforcement increases the number

and degree of injuries.  Active law enforcement reduces

the number and degree of injuries.

The UMW's history of violence was well documented

through 1983 by Haggard and Thieblot.51   The four-month

strike of 1981 had just ended before they published their

study.  As Haggard and Thieblot reported, the jurisdic-

tions that aggressively policed strikers saw relatively low

levels of violence.  The jurisdictions that took a hands-

off approach saw high levels of violence.  In 1984, that

pattern was repeated.

The principal unresolved issue was the common owner-

ship clause inserted in 1981 union contracts.  The UMW

interpreted that clause as obligating nonunionized sub-

sidiaries of holding companies with unionized subsidiaries

to pay union wages and seize union dues.  The mining com-

panies viewed each subsidiary as an independent employer.

As the large mining companies closed unionized mines and

expanded operations at nonunionized subsidiaries, the UMW

became more irritated.