This is what a recent letter said, extending solidarity to the coal miners at the Kingston-owned mine in Huntington, Utah, who are fighting to win representation by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). It was one of a number of similar letters received recently at the UMWA hall here. During the third week of January, workers said they received $1,342 for the Co-Op Miners Fund, bringing total contributions to more than $10,000 since the turn of the year. The fund was set up to help the miners survive after C.W. Mining fired most of them in December. The company claims it dismissed more than 30 foreign-born workers for lacking proper work documents. The miners say this is the same documentation the bosses had for years, since they started employment at the Co-Op mine, but they were targeted recently and fired for their efforts to win UMWA representation.

Other contributions sent to the Co-Op Miners Fund include a $60 money order from UMWA Local 1248 in Pennsylvania.

A UMWA supporter in Bountiful, Utah, sent a donation along with a note that said, “This is for the Co-Op Miners. Please tell them that we’re proud of them.”

Religious organizations are organizing fundraising too. Co-Op miners said that the San Rafael Mission Catholic Church in Price told them the church has received enough contributions for their struggle to help the miners pay rent and utilities for the entire month of February. A number of Co-Op miners have found other jobs since being fired December 9, one week before a union representation election took place at the mine. About 20, however, remain unemployed and are being sustained by contributions from the labor movement, churches, and other backers of their struggle.

Co-Op miners said that they are organizing a solidarity fundraiser along with UMWA retirees and their spouses. It will be held March 5 at the UMWA hall here and will include food, a raffle, speakers, and a dance. “We’re inviting people to come to our fundraising event on March 5 to support the unemployed miners,” said José Contreras, a Co-Op miner. “When we go to the film exhibition we are going to ask people to come to Price, Utah, as well for the fundraiser. We need to raise money to help all the families.”  
 
‘Harlan County USA’
Contreras was referring to the Sundance Film Festival, an annual event held this year in Park City, Utah. According to a press announcement released by the UMWA January 25, the Co-Op miners have been invited to speak about their 16-month-long union-organizing struggle after the showing of a new print of the award-winning documentary Harlan County USA. UMWA organizer Bob Guilfoyle will accompany the miners. The event will be held January 28 at the annual Utah Sundance Film Festival at the Egyptian Theater on Main Street in Park City.

Barbara Kopple filmed the documentary in 1973-74, during the 13-month-long strike at the Brookside coal mine in Harlan County, Kentucky. Kopple, who was 26 at the time and lived in Harlan County, will also attend the showing and be part of a round-table discussion after the screening, moderated by film reviewer Roger Ebert. A party celebrating the documentary showing will be held in the evening, featuring music by Appalachian singer Hazel Dickens.

The Brookside mine had an accident rate three times the national average, low wages, and minimal medical and retirement benefits. The miners belonged to a company union, the Southern Labor Union, which had members throughout eastern Kentucky. Contracts were different from mine to mine with wages ranging from $17 to $32 a day, compared to the $45 per day on average that UMWA-organized miners were paid.

In June 1973, the Brookside miners voted to be represented by the UMWA, rejecting the Southern Labor Union by a margin of 113-55. The Eastover Mining Company, owned by the Duke Power Company, refused to accept the terms of the national UMWA contract at the time, which included the right to strike, decent pensions, higher wages, and the right of the miners to have an elected safety committee.

The miners struck on June 30, 1973. Harlan County USA documents the entire battle. It describes the important role that the Brookside Women’s Club—made up of wives, daughters, aunts, and friends of the miners—played in the showdown. The Brookside miners won the battle against Duke Power on Aug. 29, 1974, at a time when the UMWA had organized a nationwide walkout protesting unsafe working conditions.

“The Co-Op miners’ fight for fair wages, benefits, and protections is not unlike the Brookside miners’ bitter struggle in 1973 to convince Eastover Mining Company to sign a contract after they organized,” said UMWA International President Cecil Roberts, according to the January 25 press release.  
 
Pressure on NLRB to reinstate workers
“On December 16, 2004, the Co-Op miners—many of whom are Latinos who say they worked in often unsafe conditions and were paid between $5-7 per hour—conducted a vote for union representation,” the press release said. “The results of the vote have been impounded while the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, D.C., decides whether or not to uphold an earlier decision by the Denver NLRB to bar Kingston family members from participating in the election…

“Just prior to the vote, a majority of the Latino miners were fired due to what C.W. Mining called their ‘undocumented status,’” it continued. “The UMWA has filed unfair labor practice charges against the employer on behalf of the displaced workers.”  
 
How struggle unfolded
The struggle erupted on Sept. 22, 2003, when C.W. Mining fired 75 Co-Op miners, after they protested the dismissal of one of their fellow workers and company harassment against other workers who have been part of the union-organizing effort. Most of the workers hail from Mexico and were paid between $5.50 and $7 an hour and did not have medical insurance or retirement benefits. Hourly wages for underground coal miners average at least $18 in the United States.

The Co-Op mine is one of 10 underground mines in the coalfields of central and eastern Utah, only two of which are organized by the UMWA.

The International Association of United Workers Union (IAUWU), which miners say is a company union, has existed at the Co-Op mine for a while. The NLRB recognized the IAUWU more than 20 years ago. Miners have charged that the IAUWU has never represented them in their grievances and its officers have sided with the bosses in labor disputes on the job.

The UMWA filed charges with the NLRB against the initial dismissals of the miners in September 2003. The workers turned the company lockout into a strike and set up picket lines. The Co-Op miners also filed a petition with the NLRB for a union election, so they could choose UMWA representation.

The strike lasted nearly 10 months. As the strikers remained steadfast, and received widespread support from the labor movement and churches and other organizations in the United States and internationally, the NLRB ruled last June that the miners were fired illegally for union activity. C.W. Mining agreed to reinstate the strikers, who returned to the job July 12. The NLRB also mandated a union election be held and issued a back-pay settlement for damages workers suffered as a result of the company lockout.

Between July and December, workers said they faced relentless harassment by the bosses on the job, aimed at intimidating the miners away from support for the UMWA and picking off leaders of their fight. Several workers were fired prior to the mass dismissals in early December for alleged work-rule violations.

On November 2, the labor board ruled that the Co-Op bosses must pay back wages to 47 miners amounting to some $400,000. The NLRB also ruled that members of the Kingston family, which owns the mine, would be excluded from voting in the union representation election, siding with the argument of UMWA attorneys that the close association of these individuals with the company owners represented a conflict of interest. C.W. Mining appealed this ruling to the national NLRB.

When the union representation election took place, about 100 Kingston family members the bosses claimed were legitimate employees were allowed to vote. But their ballots were segregated and sealed, pending a national NLRB decision on whether these votes can be counted. The company also challenged most of the votes of about 40 miners, whom it had fired a week before the December 17 union vote. On the ballot, workers had a choice between the UMWA, IAUWU, or no union. The outcome won’t be announced until the NLRB rules on these challenges.

Miners said they have not heard back from the labor board yet and continue to urge supporters of their struggle to send letters to the NLRB asking that the dismissed workers be reinstated and that the votes of the Kingston family members be thrown out on the basis of the previous ruling by the Denver NLRB. Such letters should be sent to the National NLRB, Robert J. Battista, Chairman, 1099 14th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20570-0001; and NLRB Region 27, Director, B. Allan Benson, 600 17th St., 7th floor—North Tower, Denver, CO 80202-5433; Tel: (303) 844-3551; Fax: (303) 844-6249.

Copies of letters to NLRB, along with other messages of solidarity and financial contributions, should also be sent to UMWA District 22, 525 East 100 South, Price, UT 84501. Checks should be made out to “Co-Op Miners Fund.” For more information call the union at (435) 637-2037, or send a fax to (435) 637-9456.  
 
 
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