“December 17 is a special day for those of us who voted for the UMWA,” said Co-Op miner José Contreras. “We want many people to join us on the 17th.”

Ed Mayne, president of the state AFL-CIO; UMWA District 22; and Utah Jobs with Justice are sponsoring the action as part of activities the AFL-CIO is organizing nationally around International Human Rights Day—marked on December 10.

Mayne said the Utah AFL-CIO is also organizing a press conference to publicize its support for raising the minimum wage in the state and for the Co-Op miners’ struggle.

The union representation election was held following a 10-month strike at the Co-Op mine between the fall of 2003 and the following summer. Some 75 workers were fired on Sept. 23, 2003, for union organizing, say the miners. They turned the lockout into a strike, setting up picket lines and winning widespread labor solidarity. In June 2004 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found the workers had been fired illegally and brokered a settlement with C.W. Mining, which runs the mine, that forced the company to reinstate the fired miners.

On Dec. 9, 2004, a week before the union vote, the company fired 30 miners for allegedly not having proper work documents. Dismissed workers pointed out these were the same documents they provided when they were hired years earlier, which only became an issue just before the union representation vote. The election was held and the bosses challenged the miners’ votes. The NLRB sealed the ballot box and still has not counted the votes or ruled on the firings.

“It’s time the NLRB tell us the results of the votes,” Contreras said.

After the December 17 picket line, hot drinks and snacks will be served at the UMWA hall in Price. Co-Op miners said they are getting word out about the picket line to other miners who work in the many underground coal mines in the Price area.

More than half of the Co-Op miners are working in these mines. Only two of the mines are organized by the UMWA so far. The rest are nonunion.

Another activity around Human Rights Day that coal miners are building is taking place December 9 in St. Louis. The St. Louis Central Labor Council, UMWA, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and Jobs with Justice are organizing a march and rally at Peabody Energy’s headquarters there and the office of Missouri’s governor. “Here in St Louis, we’re telling Peabody Energy and Governor Matt Blunt to respect workers’ choice to form unions and bargain collectively—free of intimidation, fear and reprisal,” says the flyer advertising the event. Co-Op miners said they are sending a delegation to join the march.

St. Louis is near the coalfields of southern Illinois. Peabody closed its last unionized facility in Illinois, the Marissa mine, on Oct. 23, 1999. At the same time, Peabody acquired 82 percent control in the Black Beauty Coal Company, which owns many nonunion mines in Illinois and Indiana. One of world’s largest coal companies, Peabody reported a 141 percent increase in profits in the third quarter of 2005.
 
 
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