Nearly 650 delegates from United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) locals in the United States and Canada participated in this 52nd convention, as well as hundreds of observers, including many retirees. Delegates voted to make defending the Coal Act and the fight for better pensions the top priorities in the upcoming contract negotiations with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA), which represents the largest coal companies.

Miners won the right to lifetime health coverage through a nationwide strike in 1946 that ended only when U.S. president Harry Truman agreed to the miners' demands. In 1992 the U.S. Congress passed the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act (Coal Act), to shore up depleted funds needed to cover the cost of benefits for more than 68,000 retired miners and miners' widows. But since the 1992 law was passed there have been more than 60 challenges to it in court by the coal companies.

More than 11,000 retired and active miners and their families mobilized at rallies throughout the coalfields last September 7–14 to demand, "Keep the Promise, Save the Coal Act."

This outpouring of solidarity put pressure on Congress to approve an allocation of $68 million from the Abandoned Mine Lands trust fund to one of the retirees health-care funds, called the Combined Benefits Fund, for the fiscal year 2000. This prevented an immediate collapse of the fund. But over the next five years the fund faces a deficit of more than $250 million.

According to the January-February issue of the UMWA Journal, $346 million is allocated in the "Clinton/Gore budget proposal" for 2001. The Journal warned that the union faces "numerous hurdles" to its passage.

In his speech to the convention, UMWA president Cecil Roberts referred to the September mobilizations and mentioned that the UMWA still plans to organize a march in Washington, D.C. This was raised at each of the rallies in the coalfields. The Journal reports that the rally will probably take place in "late March or April."  
 

Bosses' antiunion drive

Miners are under attack today not only around the issues of health-care and pension benefits. Thousands of union coal miners have lost their jobs as more of the production of coal is being shifted to nonunion mining operations. This is a life-and-death question for the union. Of the 85,000 miners who are working today approximately one-third are in unions.

The amount of coal produced per worker, per hour has doubled from 1986 to 1997--from 3.01 tons to 6.04 tons per man hour. At the same time, total coal production has risen 18 percent, adding up to fewer miners working longer hours. An influx of young miners are being hired at nonunion mining operations, at wages sometimes as low as $7.00–$8.00 per hour. Safety and working conditions are often far below what the union has won through years of struggle against the coal bosses. Thirty-four miners were killed in coal mine accidents in 1999, up from 29 in 1998. A giant challenge facing the union is the fight to win miners in the unorganized mines into the union.

The report of the Organizing Committee mentioned only one successful organizing drive of coal miners since the last convention, a fight for UMWA representation by 400 miners at the Lodestar Company's Baker mine in western Kentucky. The last convention of the UMWA in 1995 set a GOAL 2000 campaign to increase the strength of the UMWA and lend active support to building other unions. While this was mentioned in the committee report, organizing drives of workers outside of coal mining and related industries were highlighted, including government workers, parking lot attendants, and health-care workers.

A recent example of one of these organizing drives was posted in a press release on the union's web site entitled "UMWA Wins Big Victory in Blair County, Pa." The release said in part: "The UMWA will now represent employees in the domestic relations, juvenile and adult parole and probation, district attorney, public defender, register and recorder, cost and fines, sheriff, district justices and court administrator's offices."

In some cases even prison guards and cops, who are enemies of the working class, have been taken into the UMWA. The Observer-Reporter, based in southwestern Pennsylvania, reported that the UMWA has a local in Wyoming that "includes police officers."

Under the report of the Constitution and Grievance Committee, delegates voted to change the provision of the UMWA constitution that limited membership to coal miners and workers in related industries to include all workers. This is a big step backward that further dilutes the industrial character of the union based on coal miners.  
 

Union fighters

Many retirees in the UMWA are union fighters, and this was evident at the convention. Lewis Fitch, an 80-year-old retired miner from Illinois, spent all four days of the convention staffing a literature table and buttonholing delegates, urging people to get involved in the fight for benefits. Black lung (pneumoconiosis) is a disease that comes from the inhalation of coal dust. Fitch, president of the National Black Lung Association, told the Militant that 1,500 miners die each year from this completely preventable disease. Miners won recognition of black lung as an occupational disease and the right to disability benefits through massive strikes and demonstrations in the late 1960s and early 1970s. "But today, only 7 percent of those who apply for benefits win approval of their claims," Fitch explained.

The Black Lung Association has chapters in 12 states. The Illinois chapter meets every three weeks to be able to involve working miners, explained Jim Norman, an organizer for the Illinois chapter.

Miners have been involved in strikes and walkouts for the past 18 months to resist company and government assaults on their union. These include anthracite miners who struck Jeddo Coal Co. near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, for about a year to win a contract; miners at Freeman United in central Illinois, who walked out for several months against the company's drive to reduce their health-care benefits; and miners in Rangley, Colorado, who struck the Deserado mine for three months.

Miners in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, struck for two weeks in January against Devco, a Canadian government-owned corporation. "The miners shut down the last operational coal mine," said Stephen Drake, president of UMWA District 26 in Canada, and the final speaker on the last day of the convention. "They shut down the coal trains, the coal boats, and the coal trucks. Seven UMWA brothers slipped underground and went on a hunger strike six miles under the Atlantic Ocean." The strike ended only when federal government officials agreed to form a joint committee with the union to discuss improvements in the pension package, which had excluded many miners.  
 

Job actions at mines

In discussions at the convention, miners told of job actions at mines like the Drummond company's Shoal Creek mine in Alabama, where miners walked off the job on February 23 to protest the threatened firing of a union member. Ed Pinegar of UMWA Local 1948 described how the company then closed the mine for five days in retaliation. Miners have since returned to work winning back the job of the union brother. Walkouts like the one over safety and contract issues at the Maple Creek mine in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, have also taken place.

A number of these fighters said they appreciated the Militant for its truthful reporting on their struggles and other labor battles.

During the convention hundreds of miners joined with members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees for a picket outside the Venetian Hotel, a big resort in Las Vegas that has resisted unionization efforts. Democratic Party politician Jesse Jackson addressed the lunchtime demonstration, and the convention session later that afternoon.

AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka, a past president of the UMWA, addressed the convention delegates. He urged the union to join with other AFL-CIO unions in campaigning for the Democratic Party presidential candidate Albert Gore, although not once mentioning Gore's name. The response was less than enthusiastic, reflecting the fact that Gore is unpopular with many miners. Posing as a defender of the environment, Gore is a supporter of international global warming treaties that call for sharply restricting coal production. Videotaped greetings were also presented throughout the convention from a host of Democratic Party officeholders, including Sen. Robert Byrd and Sen. John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia and Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota.

Under Trumka's leadership in the mid-1980s, the miners' union adopted a selective strike strategy breaching a long-held tradition of "no contract--no work" that dated back at least to the 1930s. Many miners believe that this strategy led to the 1984–85 defeat at A.T. Massey, as well as other setbacks to the union.

In speeches to the convention, Roberts and other top International officers placed blame for the layoffs of union miners on implementation of the Clean Air Act, and other environmental restrictions against the mountaintop removal method of strip mining. This stance of the UMWA leadership is a retreat from positions the union began to address in the 1970s around strip mining, reclamation, and against the use of nuclear power.

An important note was raised by a delegate from Virginia who took the floor for a point of special privilege on Wednesday. "I want to speak about a union brother who happened to be in the right place at the wrong time," he said. "He is my cousin--Jerry Lowe--who was wrongfully convicted of something he didn't do."

Lowe, a member of UMWA Local 5958, was a picket captain at Arch Coal during the 1993 BCOA strike. He was imprisoned following the strike. Roberts also mentioned that Donnie Thornsbury, convicted along with others in December 1987 on frame-up charges of killing a scab coal hauler during the A.T. Massey strike, remains in jail today.

The convention was convened early to seek an early opening of negotiations with the BCOA. The current UMWA-BCOA contract expires on Dec. 31, 2002. BCOA members include the Peabody Group, Arch Coal Inc., CONSOL Energy, and Zeigler Coal Holding, now owned by AEI Resources. Other companies are expected to sign similar contracts based on whatever contract is settled between the union and the BCOA.

The convention approved a proposal to eliminate the office of International vice president. UMWA International secretary- treasurer Carlo Tarley reported that the district structure of the union had been reduced from 15 districts to 9 in 1996, eliminating many paid positions. The delegates also voted to move up the date for election of new International officers from November of 2002 to Nov. 14, 2000.  
 
 
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