Vol. 71/No. 33      September 10, 2007

The articles refer to the fact that in 2006 a federal court threw out the company’s defamation charges and other accusations against the UMWA, 16 miners, and others who had supported or reported on the unionization fight.

BY NORTON SANDLER  
SAN FRANCISCO—“We won the battle at the Co-Op mine because of the strength of our fight and the solidarity we received from many unions across this country and internationally, and from working people like those of you here today,” said coal miner Bill Estrada.

“Safety issues and working conditions were a big concern of the miners at Co-Op and one of the main reasons we reached out to the United Mine Workers of America for help,” Estrada told the crowd [at a Militant Labor Forum]. “We need to unionize the mines. That way we can mobilize union power to protect ourselves, including walking out of the mines when the conditions become too dangerous. With our union safety committees leading the way, mining can be done safely and not a single miner has to die.”

Estrada described the fight that 75 coal miners waged at C.W. Mining Company’s Co-Op mine.

“The miners, mostly Mexican-born, won every round of this struggle, from the day we walked out to the settlement agreement that has just been achieved,” Estrada said.

“We reached out to UMWA locals and other unions for solidarity in Utah and around the country, including a trip by four miners to San Francisco in early 2004 to ask for help from unions here,” Estrada explained.

Workers in nearby coal mines were looking at the example set by the Co-Op miners, said Estrada. A group of coal truck drivers contacted the union about getting organized. There were discussions about setting up a picket line outside the area power plants where coal from Co-Op was being used. There were also possibilities to involve rail workers in the struggle in a new way.

“But the miners couldn’t carry this struggle by ourselves,” Estrada said. “We had limited experience in fighting this kind of battle. We were scrambling to find jobs to make ends meet. We needed more help from the broader union movement than we had been able to win up to that point. As a result, we weren’t able to take advantage of the real possibilities then to make advances in union organizing.”

“What the Co-Op miners fought through points to why the fight for legalization of the millions of undocumented workers in this country is so important,” Estrada noted.

On May 1, federal district court judge Dee Benson issued his ruling on the motions to dismiss the federal lawsuit that had been filed by the remaining defendants in the case. He said the company had not established a valid defamation case against the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News and dismissed the lawsuit against those papers. In that same ruling Judge Benson also dismissed the entire case against the 16 coal miner defendants, saying, “Laborers are entitled to their opinions. They are entitled to express those opinions, whether in the midst of a labor dispute or not.”

When the judge’s ruling was combined with the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] determination that C.W. Mining had fired the miners for union activity, it was clear the unionists had effectively stood off the company in every attempt they made to defeat us, said Estrada.

“We didn’t give up a single thing in reaching this agreement. When it came right down to it, only one UMWA supporter, Alyson Kennedy, was going to be eligible to exercise her right to return to work,” said Estrada. “This would have been the case even if the votes in favor of the UMWA were counted. But Alyson and the other miners had determined long ago that we didn’t want to be part of a UMWA local in name only.

“However, it is very important to note that nothing in this agreement prevents UMWA backers from organizing again at this mine,” Estrada said. “If a majority of workers at Co-Op sign cards tomorrow, or six months or a year from now, in favor of being represented by the UMWA, the whole organizing fight can start again.”
 

“They would ask me how much I was being paid. I said $7.50 an hour. Most on the crew were being paid less and they had been on the job much longer than me. My co-workers asked me how much I had been paid at other mines. I said $18 to $20 an hour, because there was a sindicato (union) at those mines.”

Miners gained confidence “every time we stood up to the bosses,” she continued [speaking at a union-sponsored event]. “We began talking about how to change these conditions in the spring and summer of 2003. We decided to meet and discuss how to do it. The bosses got wind of it. They would corner miners underground and question us about why we wanted the UMWA to represent us.”

“They began suspending miners,” she said. “I’ll never forget one incident. The crew I was on was waiting in the lamp room to go to work. We noticed that a miner was standing by himself. We asked him what was up because we knew he was supposed to be underground. He told us the shift foreman had taken him out of the mine and the bosses were going to suspend him. Two crews immediately refused to go underground until the company backed down and agreed to put this miner back to work.

“A few days later, on Sept. 22, 2003, the bosses tried this again with another miner, Bill Estrada,” she said. “When Bill got to work a boss told him to sign a piece of paper agreeing he would be fired the next time he didn’t perform proper safety checks on equipment. Bill told them he wouldn’t sign. They then suspended him for three days with intent to discharge and told him to go home. Bill was able to describe to his crew what happened before he left.

“When word of the suspension spread, we decided to leave work, go to the mine office, and let the bosses know we would not return until Bill was back. Miners coming in for the afternoon shift joined us. Over 50 miners were at the office for hours,” she said.

“The company then called the county sheriff. Two sheriff’s cars showed up and the bosses asked the police officers to get workers off of their property,” said Kennedy. “One of the sheriff’s deputies looked at the two police cars, and then at the miners, and said, ‘Where am I going to put all of them?’ The boss responded, ‘They are all fired, get them off of the property now.’”

Workers then decided to leave. They turned the lockout into a strike that lasted nearly 10 months, during which they won widespread labor solidarity. “We ended up winning our jobs back, including Bill’s,” Kennedy said. “This accomplishment was the result of the strength of the fight by the miners and the UMWA.”  
 
Possibilities to build union
“The fight to organize the Co-Op mine changed the possibilities for building the union in the region,” Kennedy said. “We could see this leading up to and for several months after we won our jobs back in July 2004. Nonunion miners began discussing how to change their job conditions. Some of them would come to our picket line and say they need to fight for a union where they work. They said they made more money than us, but their working conditions were like those we faced at Co-Op.”

In face of this situation the bosses pushed their lawsuit to divert the struggle into the courts, she added. “But the miners, the UMWA, and the broader support we got, especially from working people in Carbon and Emery counties, stayed strong and we stood the company off again,” said Kennedy. “Now, the lawsuit has been defeated.”
 
 
Related articles:
Utah mine is closed for ‘safety concerns’
Miners angry at layoffs, bosses’ deadly profit drive  
 
 
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