The fund was established to help the Militant defend itself against a harassment lawsuit by C.W. Mining—owner of the Co-Op mine near Huntington, Utah—and its affiliated International Association of United Workers Union. The Militant Fighting Fund is also publicizing the fight of the other defendants, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and 16 former Co-Op miners who have fought to win UMWA representation.

Bernie Hesse, director of organizing for UFCW Local 789, moderated the event. Those attending hailed from areas throughout the Midwest, including Des Moines, Iowa; Muscoda, Wisconsin; Austin, Minnesota; and Chicago. John Studer, a member of UNITE HERE Local 10 in Philadelphia who is the executive director of the Militant Fighting Fund, was also present.

Half a dozen members of Local 789 took part. Five members of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) Local 33, which represents mechanics, cleaners, and custodians who have been on strike here against Northwest Airlines since last summer, also attended, including local president Ted Ludwig. Ken Hooker, president of International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 1833, which organizes baggage handlers and customer service agents at Northwest here, was present too.

About a dozen youth from this area attended. One decided to come after meeting supporters of the Militant Fighting Fund earlier that afternoon at a rally outside a Minneapolis hotel against the “termites”—construction contractors who don’t pay overtime and are notorious for other antilabor practices. Some 70 people attended the protest. Among the speakers was Bill Estrada, a former Co-Op miner, one of the leaders of the fight to win UMWA representation at that mine, and a defendant in the C.W. Mining retaliatory suit. He spoke about the Utah miners’ unionizing struggle and appealed for support to the Militant Fighting Fund. When the bucket was passed around, unionists there donated $478 to the fund.  
 
How struggle began
“When we told the press that we only made $6 an hour, that there were no bathrooms or locker rooms for women, that there was defective equipment and unsafe working conditions, that we were treated without dignity—the bosses claim we were defaming them,” Estrada told the audience at the Local 789 hall. “They say that we were racketeering by raising money to support our fight for UMWA representation. They are trying to turn the tables—make us into the criminals and the bosses into the victims.”

Some 75 Co-Op miners, many originally from Mexico, began a fight in 2003 to be represented by the UMWA. After C.W. Mining locked out miners who walked off the job in September of that year to protest the firing of a union supporter, the workers turned the lockout into a strike that lasted nearly 10 months. The miners won widespread solidarity in the United States and other countries.

In June 2004 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) brokered a settlement between the company and the UMWA, and strikers were offered reinstatement. The attorney speaking for the company at a February 17 court hearing on the C.W. Mining suit said the employers didn’t expect most workers to go back. But many miners returned, forcing the NLRB to organize a union representation election in December 2004. Leading up to that, the bosses fired most miners, claiming they didn’t have proper work documents. The company made this an issue for the first time on the eve of the election.

When you organize, win support, and make gains, the bosses strike back, said Estrada. C.W. Mining filed its civil suit against the workers, the UMWA, newspapers, including the Militant, and others on charges that include defamation and conspiracy to defraud the company.

Estrada quoted statements by UMWA attorneys at the February 17 hearing, taken from the court transcript. This lawsuit “was intended to chill the press and chill the organizing efforts, and not only of the workers at C.W. Mining but elsewhere within the state and within the country,” Judy Rivlin, the UMWA’s general counsel, told the court. “It has been a heavy hand at trying to stifle the organizational rights of these employees.”  
 
Aim of suit to intimidate miners
Richard Rosenblat, a UMWA attorney representing the 16 miners, told the court the company served the charges on the miners “as they were entering the election booth to decide whether or not to vote for the United Mine Workers. The real purpose behind this complaint against the individual miners was nothing more than to intimidate them in their attempting to exercise their democratic rights.”

Most of the miners who took part in this struggle have not left the country to go back to Mexico but remain in the area and have gotten other jobs, including in area coal mines. Estrada noted that a delegation of former Co-Op miners have been invited to attend the upcoming UMWA convention in early April. And some of these miners are helping to build a conference of women miners on the struggle against discrimination and sexual harassment on the job.

The recent court hearing in Salt Lake City on the C.W. Mining lawsuit reflected the relationship of class forces in this country, marked the first two months of this year by the deaths of 24 miners in the United States, said Militant editor Argiris Malapanis. He pointed out that Federal Judge Dee Benson said at the February 17 hearing that he would grant the motions to dismiss the charges against the two main dailies in Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret Morning News, but he needed more time to decide on similar motions by the Militant and the other defendants. The only major remaining defendants now are the UMWA and its officers, the 16 miners, and the Militant, its editor, and several of its reporters.

“This is clearly a labor defense case,” Malapanis said. “It is about the right of workers to tell their story, which includes exposing and opposing brutal conditions on the job, and winning support. It’s about the right of a union like the UMWA to put out press releases about an organizing campaign without fear it will be charged with slander. It’s about the right of a newspaper to accurately and consistently quote workers fighting to organize, including sometimes anonymously because of real fear of being fired, and about making sure workers can have a voice before people are killed on the job, not after someone dies.”  
 
Defend labor rights, free press
Mike Klem, national strike chairman of the AMFA walkout, said that when striking mechanics put up a picket line in front of the hotel housing scabs, Northwest Airlines filed a lawsuit against AMFA claiming the mechanics had damaged their business. “They were trying to scare us, drain our resources. Fortunately, in our case the judge dismissed the suit,” he said.

“It would appear that C.W. Mining cares less about the workers’ standard of living than its profits. And with growing opposition to its anti-union practices, they launch this lawsuit against the UMWA, the miners, and even our own Militant newspaper. We need to defend our newspaper. Free speech, freedom of the press is the core of what our country was founded on. This attack cannot be tolerated.”

Randy Jasper, a farmer from Wisconsin, got applause when he announced that Family Farm Defenders would send tractors to help farmers in the South affected by last year’s storms (see article in this issue). “This lawsuit against the Militant and the other defendants is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “If we lose this one there will be more attacks down the line. Now is the time to build solidarity.”

Mark Nowak, a professor at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, closed the program with a presentation on his recent trip to an area near Sago, West Virginia, where 12 miners died in January.

Participants contributed some $1,600 to the Militant Fighting Fund.

Brian Taylor contributed to this article.  
 
 
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