BY ALYSON KENNEDY

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The 18th National Conference of Women Miners and Supporters sponsored by the Coal Employment Project (CEP) will be held here June 21-23. The Alabama Women Miners Support Group is co-hosting this year's meeting. The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) is also supporting the conference.

The Birmingham meeting promises to be an important national gathering of activists in the fight for women's rights and the labor movement. Shirley Hyche, a member of UMWA Local 2368 in Brookwood, Alabama, and cochair of this year's conference, reported the Support Group has selected "Opening Doors - for better paying jobs for women in the coal fields" as the theme of the weekend.

"We'll be discussing how to fight for affirmative action and jobs," said Cosby Ann Totten, a laid-off miner and director of the Coal Employment Project. Hyche said conference participants would tour the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to learn more about the history of civil rights struggles and labor in the South.

UMWA vice president Jerry Jones, a board member of the Civil Rights Institute is scheduled to speak, as well as Carol Lippert, a long time activist in the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, a Black farmers organization. International guests are expected to include two Peruvian women fighting privatizations of the mines, UMWA miners from western Canada, and a delegation from Women Against Pit Closures in Britain.

Workshops are planned on the fight for jobs in the mines, safety in the mines, sexual harassment and discrimination, affirmative action, a report back from the CEP delegation to the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing, and other topics.

Totten said that a draft five-year plan will be presented at the meeting. The proposal projects launching a campaign to target union and nonunion mines that have refused to hire women miners. She said CEP would like to work with others in this campaign, including young people, unionists, and workers at unorganized plants. "We invite everyone to attend," she said, "and we always issue an especially warm welcome to strikers and other fighters."

Registration for the conference is $190, which includes meals and hotel room (double accommodations). For more information, contact CEP, P.O. Box 682, Tazewell, Virginia 24651, phone: (540) 988-5877 or the Alabama Women Miners Support Group, UMWA District 20, 1200 Fourth Ave. South, Birmingham, Alabama 35233.

Alyson Kennedy, a member of UMWA Local 1928, and Mary Zins are activists in the CEP.  
 
 
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