“The struggle of the Co-Op coal miners in Utah is a struggle for all workers,” said Wolf Loera, a member of ILWU Local 19 in Seattle, in a May 18 interview. “We have extended an invitation to the miners to speak before various longshoremen locals in the state of Washington and Oregon. Besides raising money through each local, we are also making T-shirts as a way to raise more funds for the miners.” The ILWU will cover all expenses for bringing the strikers up north, Loera added.

In January, the Utah miners went on a labor tour of the San Francisco Bay Area, organized by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (AFL-CIO) in San Jose. During that tour, they addressed many union bodies, including executive board and membership meetings of ILWU Local 10. That local responded enthusiastically to an invitation by the miners to come to Utah for a solidarity rally and expanded picket line the next month. The longshoremen flew their entire 17-member drill team into Utah to join the picket line.

“It was important for the longshoremen from San Francisco to be here with us when the bosses drove by and see that we are not alone,” said Juan Salazar, a leader of the Co-Op strike who visited California. “Now this invitation to Washington and Oregon is an opportunity to spread the word about our struggle to another part of the United States.”

Two striking miners will speak before ILWU locals in the Seattle and Portland areas. “We need more trips like this one for more economic and moral support,” added Salazar.

The 75 coal miners here have been on strike for more than seven months. They were fired Sept. 22, 2003, for demanding safe working conditions and representation by the UMWA, and protesting the victimization of union militants by the bosses.

Since the walkout began, the miners have traveled to several states to spread the word about their struggle and expand support—including Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Wyoming. They have also received letters of support and funds from unions in many other states as well as New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and other countries.

The strikers recently spoke before UMWA local meetings in Utah and Colorado and have been invited to speak at the next meeting of the UMWA local at the Deer Creek mine—one of the two union-organized coal mines in Utah. UMWA Local 9959, which represents about 50 workers at the landfill in the town of East Carbon also decided to organize a barbeque for strikers at their picket line in early June.

The growing support for the struggle has helped striking miners push back attempts by the Kingstons, the Co-Op owners, to weaken the walkout.

On April 13, a delegation of Co-Op strikers, UMWA officials, and UMWA retirees forced the Utah Department of Transportation and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to back off from their collusion with the Kingstons in an attempt to remove the strikers’ picket trailer. Prior to this visit, the state officials told strikers they had received some 40 phone calls, including from out of state, protesting their decision to ban the miners’ picket trailer. Before the BLM decided to renew the strikers’ permit for the trailer and picket shack, the Co-Op owners had told the 20 or so scabs working in the mine that the picket line was about to come down.

The determination of the miners and the expanding support for their cause in the labor movement, have caused some layers of the ruling class in Utah to show signs of embarrassment at the refusal of one of their own—the Kingston family—to consider any kind of compromise.

“It’s time that state and federal agencies responsible for mine safety and workers rights get to the bottom of allegations that the Co-Op Mine in Huntington exploits workers and is unsafe,” said an editorial in the May 8 Deseret News, one of the two main dailies in Utah.

Titled, “Resolve Co-Op mine dispute,” the editorial was published by one of Utah’s most influential newspapers, which has close ties to the Mormon Church. “The dispute over working conditions and the mine managers’ refusal to meet with workers who want to align themselves with the United Mine Workers of America is at a tense stalemate,” the editorial continued. “Striking workers, most of them Mexican nationals, have conducted a round-the-clock picket line at the mine entrance since they were fired seven months ago for what John Kingston terms an ‘illegal walkout.’”

The Kingstons are a multi-millionaire family with businesses in six western states. In addition to their notoriety for super-exploiting their employees, prominent members of this polygamous Mormon clan have been convicted on charges of physical abuse of young women in the family who have tried to escape from forced marriages with relatives.

The Deseret News editorial addressed the glaring issue of government agencies—which are supposed to rule on the dispute—dragging their feet in responding to union charges of company violations of the law. The UMWA filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last September against the Co-Op mine owners for illegally firing the miners for union activity, forcing workers to join a company union, and refusing to reinstate the workers with back pay.

Meanwhile, the federal agency in charge of monitoring and enforcing safety at the mines, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), has been conducting an investigation of the Co-Op mine for its lack of proper training procedures since last October. Although the MSHA has issued citations against the mine owners, the striking miners said they are getting reports from inside the mine that working conditions continue to be unsafe. The scabs, many of whom are relatives of the mine owners, don’t get proper training, strikers said.

For more information on the strike or to make a donation write to: UMWA District 22, 525 East 100 South, Price, Utah 84501. Checks should be earmarked “Co-Op Miners Fund.”  
 
 
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