C.W. Mining company and its affiliated International Association of United Workers Union filed the lawsuit in September 2004 against the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA); 16 Co-Op miners in Huntington, Utah, fighting for UMWA representation at that mine; the Militant, Salt Lake Tribune, and Deseret Morning News, which have covered the struggle; and trade unions and others that have backed the miners. The case is in Salt Lake City federal court. The company claims all the defendants have defamed C.W. Mining by reporting on or backing the miners’ struggle.

Especially supportive of the miners and the Militant were union members who themselves have recently been involved in efforts to organize.

Lorena Ramos, who worked five years at the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, endorsed. She described how she became a union organizer to address the low pay and intolerable conditions at this mammoth factory. Ramos was fired from her job, spent seven hours in the company’s on-site jail for her organizing efforts, and is still involved in the struggle.

Milagro Pérez also backed the Militant Fighting Fund. Pérez works at the Smithfield plant in Denison, Iowa, which is organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). “In our case, it is the very same company,” Pérez said. “But because we have a union we are not treated with the indignity Tar Heel workers face.”

Two international vice-presidents of the UFCW, Gregory Hamblet, from Washington, and Wendell Young III from Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania; and Maria Elena Durazo an international vice-president of the UNITE-HERE union from Los Angeles, also endorsed the Militant Fighting Fund.

Before the Change to Win gathering supporters of the Militant Fighting Fund got a good response at the Jobs With Justice conference, also held here. Forty individuals endorsed during that meeting, including Eddy Morales, the president of the United States Students Association. Johanne Desbiens, a leader of the successful UFCW organizing campaign at Walmart in Jonquiere, Quebec, endorsed too.
 
 
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