When the union brothers arrived and greeted the strikers, they handed them a check for more than $2,000. ILWU Local 23 had voted to make a $1,000 contribution. A few days before Weddington and Green left for Utah, the local organized a barbeque that raised additional funds for the strike.

The first day they were here they attended the AFL-CIO state convention in Salt Lake City along with five Co-Op strikers. On June 19, Weddington and Green were welcomed at a gathering at the hall of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 9958, in Sunnyside, Utah. The retirees local has been one of the strongest backers of the Co-Op strikers. Hot coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls were waiting for everyone as the 15 Co-Op strikers and four retired miners and their spouses arrived to welcome their ILWU union brothers.

After everyone gathered around four large tables, strike leader Jesús Salazar explained the latest developments in the UMWA union-organizing battle and thanked the ILWU for its consistent support to the Co-Op strike. Over $15,000 was raised during the two-day tour of ILWU locals and other unions in the Pacific Northwest. Strike leader Bill Estrada had just returned from speaking June 17 at an ILWU Local 10 meeting in San Francisco, where he was given a $5,000 contribution for the strike.

Farrand and Weddington asked a number of questions to get a better understanding of the strike. Bill Preston, recording secretary of Local 9958, explained the importance of the Co-Op strike for the other miners in the area. “I’m a retired miner with a good pension,” he said. “All of the mines around here were UMWA. The first time we tried to organize in Sunnyside, in 1922, the union was not prepared. On the first day the miners and their families were kicked out of their houses. The miners fought hard, but lost. Then in 1934 after another strike, the first UMWA contract was signed.”

Several retired miners pointed out that all of the coal mines in Utah except one are nonunion now.

Getting the UMWA recognized at Co-Op would strengthen the union in this area. “That’s why our fight is your fight,” said Preston. “I’m proud of you guys. If we can win this it will give a little courage to the guys who work at the nonunion mines.”

Pointing to the local’s charter on the wall, Preston said, “You see that the charter has a drape over it. When one of our members dies, we put a drape over it. We are an old local. Many of our members have died. That’s why I want to see these guys win. I thought the union was dying until the Co-Op strike.”

After the discussion, Bob Fivecoat, a member of UMWA 9958, took Farrand and Weddington to see the “machine gun house.” Just outside Sunnyside, on a mountain top, lie the remnants of a shack from which company thugs aimed a machine gun at striking coal miners and their families who were living in tents below. The workers had been kicked out of company housing because they had walked out for the union. Fivecoat said that all of the miners were immigrants—Greeks, Italians, and Mexicans.

That evening the ILWU brothers were invited to a fiesta that was attended by many Co-Op strikers, their families, and other miners in the area. Weddington and Farrand, who are both Black, spoke with a number of strikers about the history of the longshore workers’ union. “What makes the ILWU a strong union is that we have a master contract,” said Farrand. “All of the ILWU members up and down the West Coast have the same contract. In our last contract strike in 2002 everyone struck together.”

Before he started working on the docks, Weddington said, he was a merchant seaman. Several Co-Op strikers listened intently to Weddington’s description of his experiences with racism. In 1948 he was part of a strike of merchant seaman. “We were on strike, we were all united both Black and white. And when we were came back to the United States we came on barges. On these barges a rope separated the Blacks and the whites. This hurt me a lot because we were just on strike together and united. But because of the racism in the United States we were separated before we came back into the country,” Weddington said.

This kind of solidarity for the Co-Op miners is expanding, as the strikers continue to reach out to the labor movement.

On June 22, strikers Jesús Salazar, Bill Estrada, Berthila León, and Umberto Miranda drove more than 10 hours to attend a United Transportation Union (UTU) regional conference in Reno, Nevada. They got there that evening in time for a conference buffet dinner.

The next day the miners were invited to set up a table at the entrance of the lobby with information on their strike, a display of photos and letters of support, and a bucket for money. In the morning the miners had received $200 in donations, but during lunch UTU officials made an announcement about the strike and the miners were introduced from the floor to a standing ovation. Over the next three hours many people came by dropping money in the bucket and asking about the strike. The miners collected a total of $2,100 before they left that afternoon.

A UTU officer from Salt Lake City told the miners that their members support the strike and wanted to know when the strikers needed more help. He said that UTU members in his local who work on Union Pacific trains take coal from a Kingston-owned load-out located between Price and Huntington. He left his name and phone number.

Most people at the conference were learning about the strike for the first time, but donated generously. A reporter for the UTU magazine took pictures of the miners staffing the table and left his card. Two other local union officers said they would organize their locals to send money to the miners’ strike account.

For more information on the Co-Op strike, or to make a donation, write to: UMWA District 22, 525 East 100 South, Price, Utah 84501. Earmark checks to the “Co-Op Miners Fund.”  
 
 
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