Vol. 71/No. 31      September 3, 2007

Another 14 people subscribed to the Militant for the first time and two others renewed their subscriptions. Coal miners who work at mines owned by Murray Energy Corp., which owns Crandall Canyon, spoke of the increased productivity drive and longer work hours they face. Miners said they work seven days a week, often 10-12 hours a day. Many miners cited this as a reason they quit working for that company and found jobs at other mines.
 

BY TONY LANE  
PITTSBURGH—Supporters of the Militant from Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh took the Militant special supplement to the coalfields of southwestern Pennsylvania, the West Virginia northern panhandle, and the Ohio Valley. Miners in those areas bought 123 copies of the supplement, 23 copies of the Militant, and one subscription. Workers at one mine bought more than 70 copies of the supplement, some of them taking small bundles to distribute to coworkers.

Many working people said they were familiar with coal boss Robert Murray and didn’t trust him. Murray Energy owns mines in the area and has bitterly opposed the union. (See articles on page 5.) As one worker told us, "Ask anybody around here. Murray doesn’t care about workers and he doesn’t like unions.”

BY STEVE PENNER  
VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Militant campaigners here found considerable interest in the paper’s coverage of the Utah mine disaster on picket lines of striking woodworkers and library workers, at a rally of hundreds of city workers, and on a table sale in a working-class neighborhood. In a couple of days they sold 29 copies of the special supplement, 28 copies of the Militant, and three subscriptions.

“There is no accident in a mine,” commented a telephone worker who bought the paper along with the supplement. He had been on strike against the Telus communications giant for four months in 2005, and strongly agreed with the Militant’s headline “No miner has to die!” Having a union is essential to defend workers’ safety, he said.

BY JACQUIE HENDERSON  
HOUSTON—Distributors of the Militant sold 17 copies of the special supplement on the mine disaster in Utah and nine single copies of the Militant at the Tyson meatpacking plant here August 10.

Holding up a big sign "No Miner Has To Die! Safety is a Union Question," 21 more copies of the Militant were sold August 12 outside Alcoa's Sandow mine, in Rockdale, Texas.