ROCK SPRINGS - Union workers at Sweetwater County's largest coal mine overwhelmingly rejected a second contract offer from the Bridger Coal Co. this week, according to union and company officials.

The two sides - seemingly far apart in negotiations after six months of contract talks - will resume discussions later this month, officials with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (Lodge S1978) Western Energy Workers Union said Thursday.

The Bridger Mine, located about 35 miles northeast of Rock Springs, provides the principal supply of fuel for the adjacent Jim Bridger Power Plant. Some 285 union members are employed at the mine as hourly workers.

Mike Murphy, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers representative and a former Bridger Mine employee, said 201 union members voted against the contract offer and seven members voted for the proposal on Tuesday.

Murphy said the vote marked the second time this year that union workers at the Bridger Mine have shot down the company's proposed three-year contract offer.

Union members defeated the company's first contract offer May 19 by a vote of 226-13.

Murphy said after the overwhelming rejection of the company's second offer, union members met this week to discuss their next step.

"We're trying to feel people out and see where they want to go from here," Murphy said in a phone interview. "There's other things that need to be (looked at) when you reject the offer twice like this and the company doesn't react."

Dave Eskelsen, spokesman for PacifiCorp's Rocky Mountain Power, had no comment on the vote, except to say the company continues to "negotiate in good faith."

"Typically, we don't talk about the specifics of negotiations while they're going on," he said Thursday afternoon.

Murphy said the main issues include health care, pensions and wages, but he declined to elaborate.

The union's four-year contract, approved in 2003, expired in November. Murphy said at the company's request, negotiations were postponed for several months, eventually beginning in January.

He said the union continues to work under the old contract, which has been extended during negotiations.

"It was a good contract … a very good contract," Murphy said.

Murphy said union officials remain hopeful a strike can be avoided, which he called a "last resort" for the union.

"We've had union-management problems in the past, and we've usually been able to solve them … and hopefully we will again this time," Murphy said. "That's just the way we want to do business."

Bridger Coal Co. is a joint business venture with two owners. Pacific Minerals Inc. has a two-thirds ownership, and Idaho Energy Resource Co. owns the other third. PMI, the managing agent for Bridger Coal Co., is a subsidiary of PacifiCorp. IERCo is a subsidiary of Idaho Power Co.

Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.

* Last we knew: Bridger Coal Co. union employees at the Bridger Mine voted down a company contract proposal on May 19.

* The latest: Union members voted down a second contract offer from the company on Tuesday.

* What's next: The union and company will resume contract negotiations later this month.]]->

* The Jim Bridger Coal Mine is a surface and now underground coal mine that began operations in 1974. The coal mine is located about 35 miles northeast of Rock Springs in Sweetwater County.

* Bridger Coal is the only mine in the country that employs all three method of mining - surface, highwall and longwall - at once. All of the coal produced at the mine is used to power the adjacent Jim Bridger Power Plant.

* The mine has coal reserves of more than 120 million tons and employs about 360 people. The mine produces an average of about 6 million tons of coal per year.]]->