The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.59/No.40           October 30, 1995 
 
 
Miners Discuss Organizing At UMWA Convention  

BY JOHN HAWKINS

MIAMI BEACH, Florida - Nearly 700 delegates attended the fifty-first constitutional convention of the United Mine Workers of America here September 25-29. Discussion at the gathering reflected growing concern among union members of the need to organize coal miners in order to fend off the bosses attacks on working people.

UMWA membership figures graphically point up the reason for this concern. Of the 200,000 members the union claims, 75,000 are active members, a figure that includes those recently laid off.

Also, productivity in the coal mining industry in the United States and Canada has increased significantly during the last twenty years. As a result, the number of workers employed in the industry - and thereby the potential membership of the union in the two countries - has continued to decline. From 233,000 in 1980, the number has fallen to 100,000 today.

Committee reports, and much of the delegate discussion, were directed at what the union should do to increase organizing, as well as how to fight Congressional attacks on entitlements.

Unfortunately, discussion of these questions among the delegates themselves took a back seat to the parade of politicians and union officials invited to speak. Their purpose, by and large, was to generate some enthusiasm for the Democratic Party in the 1996 elections and for the new leadership that will most likely be elected at the upcoming convention of the AFL-CIO.

Among the politicians addressing the convention were U.S. senator John D. Rockefeller from West Virginia, and Georgia congressman and former civil rights activist, John Lewis. Rockefeller, sponsor of a 1992 bill that guaranteed pension benefits and health coverage for thousands of retired miners, criticized legislation currently before Congress that would in essence repeal the 1992 measure, known as the Coal Act.

President Bill Clinton spoke to the delegates via satellite. Clinton's speech centered on the rift between Congress and the White House over the budget. Mindful of his audience, he played up his administration's opposition to Congressional efforts to gut the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the Coal Act. Both Rockefeller and Clinton were made honorary members of the union.

Speeches by UMWA president Richard Trumka, Vice- President Cecil Roberts, and Secretary-Treasurer Jerry Jones all keyed in on the UMWA's tradition of combativeness. Noting the union's historic role in the formation of the industrial unions, they pointed to Trumka's likely election as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO as opening a similar chapter in the union's history.

John Sweeny and Linda Chávez-Thompson, Trumka's running mates in the AFL-CIO leadership contest, struck similar themes the last day of the gathering.

The willingness among thousands of coal miners to resist company and government assaults on their union, and what they have come to regard as their rights, was reflected in the contributions of many delegates during the discussion.

At the center of the report of the Organizing Committee was the proposal to launch a GOAL 2000 (Growth On All Levels). This program would increase the strength of the UMWA and lend active support to building and strengthening other unions, according to its supporters.

The report noted victories won by the UMWA over the last several years at coal mines and other work places, including the Marrowbone, Wolf Creek, Cyprus Mountain, and Buck Creek mines - in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.

A resolution opposing the Ballenger bill, legislation before Congress that would gut the enforcement powers of Occupational Safety and Health Administration and eliminate the MSHA, was passed. It called for organizing demonstrations of miners and their supporters locally and in Washington, D.C. to ensure that MSHA and OSHA are not gutted.

The report of the Health and Safety Committee noted that while fatalities continued to decline in the last decade - especially the last five years - another disturbing trend was taking shape. An increasing number of workers in the mines nowadays are employees of contractors, and an increasing percentage of all mine fatalities are suffered by these workers.

This is directly attributable, the report noted, to the unfulfilled mandate under the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969 to set regulations specifically governing training and safety standards to cover this cross section of the mine work force.

Under the report of the Constitution and Grievances Committee debate broke out on amendments to the constitution that would make it more difficult for candidates to qualify for the union's top offices. Over significant opposition, the number of local nominations needed to qualify as a candidate for international office was raised from 25 to one fifth of all locals.

Among the union officials invited to address the convention were James Motlatsi, president of the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa; and Peter Michalzik, General Secretary of the Miners International Federation. Motlatsi was voted in as a UMWA honorary member.

The convention also voted to condemn Exxon and the Columbian government for forcing striking coal miners at the El Cerrejon mine back to work at gunpoint.

John Hawkins is a member of UMWA Local 2368. Alyson Kennedy, member of the same local, also contributed to the article.

 
 
 
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