Many coal miners and other workers came up to the table and said they supported the fight of the Co-Op miners to win representation by the UMWA. They also asked questions about where things stood in this struggle since the miners returned to work in July.

A couple who stopped by the miners’ table had read about the strike in the Salt Lake newspapers. “I thought you guys had already won,” the man said.

The miners—Ricardo Chávez, Bill Estrada, and Berthila León, who staffed the table along with UMWA international representative Dallas Wolf—explained that they had won their jobs back but not the union nor a decent contract. The National Labor Relations Board had held a hearing in July to determine who will be eligible to vote in the union election, the miners said, but had not issued a ruling yet or set the date for the vote. The NLRB ruled earlier this spring that the Co-Op bosses had fired illegally the 75 miners a year ago for union organizing activity and ordered the company to reinstate the dismissed workers. After an unconditional offer to return, about two dozen strikers got back on the job and have continued their struggle for UMWA representation from inside.

The company owners, the Kingston multimillionaire clan, are using a boss outfit, called the International Association of United Workers Union, to prevent a UMWA victory, claiming that about 100 employees—including management and office personnel—who are Kingston family members or relatives should have a right to vote in the union representation election.

“That’s an outrage,” the man who stopped by the information table said, upon hearing these facts. “What is the government waiting for? You deserve justice.” The couple signed a petition letter urging the NLRB to set a date for the union election and not allow the relatives of the Kingston family who work at the mine to vote, since their loyalty is with the company.

Throughout the day other passers-by expressed similar opinions, the miners said.

On display at the information table was the latest article from the UMWA Journal on the union organizing fight at C.W. Mining, also known as Co-Op, and stacks of many newspaper articles that covered the miners’ 10-month strike that started Sept. 22, 2003. A couple of photo albums on the table depicted graphically activities in solidarity with the strike throughout the West and other parts of the country. Such support from the labor movement was behind the earlier NLRB ruling and the company’s offer to return on the job, the miners told participants in the street fair.

“Forward to a real union! Solidarity with Co-Op miners. Future members of the UMWA!” reads the leaflet in English and Spanish to invite everyone to come to the October 2 anniversary rally that will be held at the local UMWA district union hall. Miners say the event will include food, speakers, games, and prizes to be raffled. One miner has volunteered to make a goat stew as part of the meal for the event. The miners plan to make this a family affair, providing games for kids of various ages, including a large trampoline. The miners are also producing a few hundred T-shirts to commemorate the year-long struggle, they said.

“This is one of the most important labor struggles going on to today,” said Mark Downs, a retired member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 19 in Seattle. “At the Co-Op mine there are many young workers who are super-exploited and who are putting up a fight to a get a union. This is a fight for the whole working class and that is why unionists from Seattle, Washington, are going to be in Utah on October 2.”

Most miners at Co-Op are being paid between $5.25 and $7 an hour, while wages for underground coal miners average above $17 across the country. They also work under unsafe job conditions.

Downs, who was a longshoreman for 40 years, said that he and two other members of Local 19 have already purchased airplane tickets to fly to Utah for the October 2 anniversary celebration.

As part of its ongoing solidarity with the Co-Op miners, ILWU Local 19 introduced a resolution that was approved by the Washington State Labor Council.

“Whereas, workers who have been trying to negotiate a living wage for the work they do and establish safe working conditions on the job have been persecuted for trying to affirm their hope to establish a decent and human workplace,” says the resolution; “Whereas, the reality of this persecution has been authenticated by recent decisions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) handed down in support of the workers, …. Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Washington State Labor Council go on record in support of these miners in struggle and monitor their progress in this dispute; and, be it further resolved, that the Washington State Labor Council contact the NLRB and petition them to not grant certification to the company union and to encourage our affiliates to write and send similar letters to the National Labor Relations Board.”

For more information on the October 2 anniversary event, and to send letters of support or financial donations contact the UMWA District 22 at: Tel. (435) 637-2037; Fax. (435) 637-9456; or write to 525 East 100 South, Price, UT 84501.

Letters to the NLRB urging the board to set a date for a union vote and to back the UMWA on who should have the right to vote in the election should be sent to: NLRB Region 27, attn: B. Allan Benson, director, and Nancy Brandt, hearing officer; at 600 17th Street, 7th Floor—North Tower, Denver, CO 80202-5433. Tel. (303)844-3551; Fax. (303)844-6249.  
 
 
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