Indeed. The miners did win that battle after a nearly 10-month-long strike. And they may win more battles down the road. But winning the war to bring in the UMWA at the Co-Op mine is a process. As the record has shown, UMWA supporters in that mine are determined to fight to the end. The final outcome, however, is not in their hands alone. It will be determined not only by what these courageous fighters have done and will do, but on the actions of their allies in the labor movement and beyond.

The Co-Op miners need support from the unions and the broader working-class movement in the West and throughout the United States now as much as ever.

As they have told the world, they are asking unions and other organizations that back their UMWA-organizing struggle to send delegations to the one-year anniversary of their strike. The event is set for October 2 at the UMWA hall in Price. On Saturday, September 18, the miners and their allies in the state capital, Salt Lake, are holding a picket line outside the office of Carl Kingston, one of the prominent members of the capitalist family that owns Co-Op. The miners deserve the full support of the labor movement for these activities and the broadest possible participation in them.

The stakes in this fight are high. If the Co-Op workers win, their success will give a boost to the entire UMWA, especially in the West, and strengthen the hand of miners everywhere who are fighting for their livelihood and safety on the job. If the company prevails, the bosses will be able to step up their anti-union drive. About 55 percent of the coal produced in the United States is mined west of the Mississippi. Yet only about half a dozen mines in that region are union. Given the current boom in coal production, miners are in a better position to push for livable wages and working conditions if they make some breakthroughs in organizing that boost their self-confidence.

The Co-Op miners, most of whom were born in Mexico, are standing up for their rights in response to the brutal drive that the coal barons have been waging nationwide to jack up their profit rates. This includes longer work hours, increased levels of coal dust miners breathe, refusal to pay black lung benefits, speed-up and other work rules that result in growing numbers of deaths in the mines, disregard for the environment, and efforts to weaken and keep out the union. Miners around the country have taken part in struggles opposing employer and government efforts to loosen coal dust rules, demanding federal black lung benefits for retired and disabled miners and their widows, exposing the bosses’ cover-up of fatal mine disasters, and resisting company attempts to use bankruptcy proceedings to tear up union contracts.

The Co-Op miners have been fighting for more than a year for decent wages, benefits, job safety, and dignity against the Kingstons—a capitalist family notorious in the region for their brutality against the workers they employ in their $150 million empire. The miners have succeeded—to a large degree through widespread support from the labor movement in the United States and other countries—in forcing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to rule they were fired illegally, order the company to take them back, and set a representation election. But months later, the NLRB, as usual, has yet to make a ruling on who is eligible to vote or set the date for the election. The bosses will try their best to use the labor board to tie up the struggle in red tape and prolong any decision, hoping they can force enough of the miners to leave or drop the fight.

Solidarity has helped these miners come this far. Solidarity can help them win not only the next battle but the war for the union and a contract at Co-Op.

Send messages to the NLRB backing the UMWA’s opposition to voting rights for the mine owners’ family members in the union election! Send letters of support and financial donations to the miners! Build the September 18 and October 2 union-organizing activities in Utah!  
 
 
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