A-1 Disposal is one of many businesses owned by the Kingston family, which also owns the Co-Op mine near Huntington, Utah.

More than 150 trade union officials from across the country—attending a “Voices at Work” conference—were among those picketing the garbage disposal operation. They came out of the buses that brought them to the picket line chanting union slogans in support of two of the battles currently taking place in Utah for union recognition: the 10-month-long fight by miners at C.W. Mining, and the union-organizing drive by nurses at Salt Lake Regional Hospital.

“Hospital management is working hard to discourage us, but with solidarity from other unions, we will continue to fight,” said Lori Gay, one of the nurses’ leaders.

On several occasions the Co-Op miners have joined informational picket lines organized by the nurses in Salt Lake City.

Urging those at the rally to continue supporting these struggles for union recognition, Ricardo Chávez said that the Co-Op miners are in a fight that could turn into an important labor victory. Chávez recently returned from Idaho, where he had been working in a potato-packing warehouse, to get his job back at Co-Op after an NLRB-mandated agreement with the coal bosses. Chávez urged continued labor movement backing for the miners.

The crowd broke out chanting, “Shame on you! Shame on you!” at John Daniel Kingston—a member of the Kingston family—when miner Alyson Kennedy described the just-above-minimum wages the mostly immigrant workers earn at the mine and how the miners get “no decent benefits, and no pension.”

Co-Op miner Jesús Galaviz, one of many stalwarts of the strike, also spoke. Chávez and Galaviz’s remarks were translated by Archie Archuleta, recently retired administrator of minority affairs for the mayor’s office in Salt Lake City.

“When the Co-Op strike started it was a local conflict,” said Mike Dalpiaz, international executive board member for UMWA District 22. “But the fight has gone worldwide as these miners have exposed the exploitative conditions at the Kingston-run mine and won support from around the world for the struggle for justice.”

Utah AFL-CIO president Ed Mayne told the rally, “The struggle of the Co-Op miners has brought strength to the Utah labor movement.”
 
 
Related articles:
Back on job, Utah miners face war by Co-Op bosses
NLRB holds hearing on Co-Op miners  
 
 
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