BY CAPPY KIDD AND BETSEY STONE
CHICAGO - As the strike by 350 miners against the Freeman
United Coal Co. in central Illinois approaches its 100th day,
the company continues to escalate its attacks on the United
Mine Workers.
"We believe that the company is training scabs and that the scabs are living on company property," said Arthur Rouse, a striker from Freeman's Crown 2 mine. Rouse was among a group of 45 miners who had traveled from the coal fields to a rally organized by Operation PUSH in Chicago December 5.
Freeman spokesman Steve Cindrich was cited in the December 5 State Journal Register from Springfield, Illinois, as saying that "roughly 40 replacement workers began training at the Crown 3 mine in Girard and the Industry mine...." Crown had run an ad for scabs in the State Journal Register all week. Additional strikebreakers are still being sought Cindrich said.
In response to the company's latest provocation members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) are strengthening support for the strike. On November 30 and December 1 the three striking locals organized expanded picket lines at the Crown 2 and Crown 3 mines. Three hundred miners, family members and supporters rallied in the Farmersville High School gym December 5. Earlier in the week a 92-car caravan of strikers and their supporters drove through the Farmersville mining area to show their determination to win the strike.
The miners who drove to Chicago were guests at a Founders Day rally honoring Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH. UMWA president Cecil Roberts was the keynote speaker. Both Roberts and Jackson spoke extensively about the strike against Freeman.
Vowing to make a solidarity visit to the the strike, Jackson announced that the Rainbow PUSH organization had collected 200 bags of groceries for the miners' food pantry. Jackson said that the movements of John L. Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. should come together. "Its not about Black or white, it's about wrong or right," he said.
Standing beside one of the trucks loaded with the groceries donated by Operation PUSH, Arthur Rouse told the Militant, "I worked there 22 years, never had one missed day. To this company dedication means nothing. A couple of years ago through LNPCR, a labor-management thing, we practically tripled production, and this is the payback."
As a result of a coal mining injury that destroyed his spleen, Rouse has developed hairy-cell leukemia. He explained that Freeman had cut off his medical disability benefits when the miners voted to go on strike. Defending medical benefits and seniority are two of the key issues of this strike.
For information about the strike, to request a speaker from the striking miners, or to offer solidarity, contact the UMWA Strike Headquarters, P.O. Box 107, Farmersville, Illinois, 62533, or call (217) 227-3233.
Cappy Kidd is a member of the United Auto Workers. Betsey Stone is a member of the International Association of Machinists.