Word: chambers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...country's black mineworkers stayed off the job and the mining companies hit back with the start of mass firings. But after a four-hour negotiating session Sunday, the blows and counterblows came to a sudden end. "The strike is over," said Johan Liebenberg, chief negotiator for the Chamber of Mines, which represents the six largest mining companies. While the settlement appeared to be mostly on the Chamber's terms, Liebenberg said, "Both parties realize what the costs of a strike are and have learned to respect each other...
That conclusion had seemed unlikely earlier last week. Though the Chamber had made an offer of improved fringe benefits, it refused to discuss wage hikes above the 15%-to-23% range that it had unilaterally put into effect before the walkout began three weeks ago. After a perfunctory show of hands at the 31 affected gold and coal mines, the all-black National Union of Mineworkers rejected the offer...
...black mineworkers walked off their jobs, and at least a third of the mines were seriously affected. The basic issue was money: a demand by the National Union of Mineworkers for an across-the-board 30% increase, compared with hikes of 15% to 23% granted by the Chamber of Mines, which represents the six largest employers. Until now, according to the union, the average black worker has made $170 a month, while employers claimed the figure was $274. Both sides agreed that the average black miner earns only about one-fifth as much as the average white miner...
With the coming of September, the framers could finally see the beginning of the end. The Pennsylvania state legislature had reconvened, and it needed the chamber where the Constitutional Convention was meeting. The dwindling collection of delegates, a dozen of whom had already gone home for one reason or another, picked a five-man Committee of Style and Arrangement to undertake the actual writing of the Constitution...
Madison scanned Sherman's pockmarked face looking for an opening. "But Roger," he pleaded, "I thought you were working on a compromise. Some arrangement where the small states would have equal footing in the upper chamber of the legislature." Sherman shook his gray head sadly. "Yeah, James, I tried. But I'm old enough to know that politics is the art of the possible. There are just too many pressure groups, too many cameras, too much openness, too much damn democracy to make this thing work." Madison started to object, but Sherman cut him off. "Cheer up, James," he said...