BY DANNY BOOHER AND ALYSON KENNEDY
FARMERSVILLE, Illinois - With less than two hours notice, 70 striking miners and their supporters mobilized to the picket line November 18 when they heard Freeman United Coal Co. was running scabs into the Crown 2 mine in Virden, Illinois. "We wanted 30 miners," said Frank Hasquin, a team leader for United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 1969. "I made 40 calls and could only reach 10 people, but we had 70 people show up to the gate" from the work he and other strikers did. Hasquin is a fourth-generation miner. He has worked at Freeman's Crown 2 mine for 24 years, and helped sink the first shaft at the mine.

The company had painted a white line in front of the mine entrance and told miners they cannot cross it. The 70 pickets were walking back and forth near the white line when three Illinois state police cars showed up, claiming that they were called because the strikers were blocking traffic. Miners at strike headquarters told the Militant that Vance Security, the notorious strike-breaking outfit hired by Freeman, had called the cops. Strikers who were on the line that day said a Channel 20 news reporter told the state police the only traffic that had stopped was the police cruisers.

Members of UMWA locals 1969, 12, and 2488 struck Freeman September 11, after the company refused to guarantee health benefits for retirees. Freeman is a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp. The strike affects Freeman's three mines in central Illinois.

The company's decision to run two van loads of scabs to work in the mine is one part of the company's increased attacks on the strikers and the UMWA as a whole.

Freeman files lawsuit against miners
On November 17, Freeman filed a $1 million lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois naming as defendants the UMWA International Union; District 12 of the UMWA; locals 1969, 12, and 2488; and unnamed "individual John Does."

Freeman's lawsuit charges that the UMWA has organized an "illegal strike," in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. The lawsuit claims that the mine workers union is making "illegal" demands in its negotiations with Freeman. Count I of the lawsuit charges the union "has induced or encouraged Freeman's employees and/or the employees of persons doing business with Freeman to engage in a strike or refusal in the course of their employment to use, handle or work any goods, articles, commodities and to perform any services, with an object of forcing or requiring Freeman...to enter into agreement."

Along with attacking the right to strike, the company lawsuit charges the union with "physical obstruction of the public and private roads and entranceways to Freeman's property so as to prevent employees of Freeman, and persons seeking to work for or do business with Freeman from doing so." The lawsuit also accuses the strikers and the UMWA of violence, claiming that the strikers are "assaulting persons entering or leaving Freeman's property, placing objects in the public right of ways, threatening to and damaging the property of Freeman, its employees...and picketing at or about the public and private roads and entranceways leading to Freeman's property."

The November 18, Springfield, Illinois, State-Journal Register quotes Freeman spokesperson Steve Cindrich as saying, "We were trying to keep the doors open to continue talks," but the lawsuit, "is a step we have to take if we're going to see a conclusion to this process." Two weeks earlier, negotiations between the company and the union stopped after Freeman added a demand that the union give up seniority rights for job bidding, along with "panel rights" for rehiring laid off miners. Cindrich told the Illinois Times, "Freeman must be able to find the right people for the job in order to be efficient and competitive, and not be forced to hire the next person on the list."

The battle has escalated substantially. Just a few days after Freeman filed its lawsuit, a letter signed by company president Walter Gregory was sent to each striking member. "I invite you to return to work," the letter states. "Please report to work on your regular assigned shift beginning with the 12:01 AM shift on November 30, 1998. Should you decide not to return to work, the company will have no choice but to pursue alternatives including hiring other miners."

In response to the company's threats, Hasquin told the Militant, "I'll return to work when Freeman guarantees health- care benefits for our current and future retirees. We are not giving up anything.

"A lot of us have given most of our working lives to mining coal," he continued. "I've given 24 years of my life. Freeman wants to be able to say that we are not qualified miners and hire someone off the street. Freeman wants the right to pick and choose who they want to run their machinery. They want workers who would do anything for them and run unsafe. I will not give up my health care or seniority rights."

Another striker in Local 1969, Paul Perrine, has worked at the Crown 2 mine for 22 years. He told the Militant, "This is a big slap in the face. Freeman has been posturing in the negotiations. They are out to bust our union. We are not giving up. Freeman will not beat our spirit. Miners have a lot of history, we have always had to fight hard. Miners are really finding out what matters to Freeman - the dollar."

Miners have also faced harassment from government police agencies. Strikers say they are now seeing helicopters flying over Freeman's property, as well as one helicopter hovering over the home of David Yard, a striking member of UMWA Local 1969 and a trustee on the UMWA's Miners Relief Fund.

FBI agents showed up at the door of Georgia Yard November 6 demanding to search a tool shed on her property. Mrs. Yard is David Yard's grandmother. Georgia Yard told the FBI they could not search her property without a warrant. Three days later the cops returned with a search warrant. They found nothing and were told to leave.

The miners publicly opposed this attack on the strike and one of their members, passing out leaflets describing the FBI harassment and writing letters to the editors of area newspapers. Local newspapers carried lead articles on the FBI visit.

The November 18 State Journal Register quoted Georgia Yard saying that one of the FBI agents "said they thought they were making, I guess they call them `jackrocks,' things that bust your tires. But they surely knew I wasn't making them. I'm 86 years old."

"Grandma" Yard, as she has become known, told the Register the FBI called her back the next day. "He wanted to know if my family was mad at me. I told him, `I don't know why that would be. I was just following the law.' " She continued, "It did make it look bad on me, the FBI being here. I've never been in trouble with the law. I don't plan to start now."

Georgia Yard is viewed as a hero by miners and supporters of the strike. She has been invited as a special guest at the retirees Christmas party for United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 751, which organizes the Caterpillar workers in Decatur, Illinois.

The striking miners are standing firm and reaching out for support in the region. These reporters attended a November 21 film showing at the strike headquarters in Farmersville, Illinois, sponsored by the Women's Auxiliary. Two films were shown that night. Out of the Darkness tells some of the history of the UMWA, including footage of the struggle to win union recognition from the coal bosses, for Black Lung benefits, and to democratize and strengthen their union. It also has a segment on the 1989-90 UMWA strike at Pittston, which ended in a victory for the miners union.

The other movie was Matewan, a Hollywood film about one of the battles to forge the UMWA. About 20 strikers and supporters were in attendance that night, and other strikers were coming and going from the headquarters, carrying out their picket duty. Young family members, wearing strike support T-shirts and carrying picket signs, also walked about the room.

Workers in area help fill food pantry
The Women's Auxiliary, made up of miners' family members and others, organizes the food pantry, kitchen, and other support for the strike. Members reported that the previous week more than 140 strikers' families came to the headquarters to get food baskets made up by the auxiliary.

In the past week UMWA locals from southern Illinois had delivered turkeys to every family of the striking locals. Food and financial contributions continue to arrive daily in support of the strike. Four strikers drove up to the General Motors Electro Motive plant, just outside of Chicago, to pick up food donations UAW members had collected at the plant gates there. The Electro Motive UAW local and its retirees section each gave a financial contribution to the Miners Relief Fund.

In a November 24 phone interview Barbara McCoy, a striking member of UMWA Local 1969, said she and four other members of locals 1969 and 12 spent the previous day helping members of UMWA Local 2488 picket the Freeman strip mine in Industry, Illinois. There are just 42 workers on strike at the strip mine. McCoy pickets there for eight hours every week. Miners in Industry are getting food and other donations, like in Farmersville, she reported. A local grocery store is donating bread, and other items.

Two members of the striking locals are headed to the Alabama coal fields for a week-long solidarity tour. Invited by District 20 of the UMWA, the Freeman miners will be visiting mine portals throughout the district and addressing fellow UMWA members about the stakes in their fight and gaining much needed financial support. The strikers will also visit bathhouses at mine sites throughout the area.

The strikers have also been invited to address United Transportation Union Local 1405 in Granite City, Illinois, at their December 9 Christmas party.

The striking UMWA locals are organizing a December 12 Christmas dance for members and strike supporters.

For information about the strike, to request a speaker from the striking miners, or to make a contribution to the food pantry or Miners Relief Fund, contact the UMWA Strike Headquarters, P.O. Box 107, Farmersville, Illinois 62533, or call: (217) 227-3233.

Alyson Kennedy is a member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 7-507. Joel Britton, also a member of OCAW Local 7-507, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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