Vol. 77/No. 19      May 20, 2013

Militant/David Rosenfeld

Miners from Deer Creek Mine in Utah protest May 4 at Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., against drive to gut union safety committee and impose concessions.

Deer Creek, which employs 235 people, is the only United Mine Workers union-organized mine in Utah. Workers there are resisting the bosses’ drive to impose concessions in their contract, which expired Jan. 2, that would weaken the union along with its role in job safety.

The 56 demonstrators, undeterred by snowfall and high winds, were well received by working people here. One woman stopped her car and donated a pair of gloves. Participants wore T-shirts that said, “Justice for Local 1769 & 2176 Miners and Retirees,” and chanted, “MidAmerican promised, MidAmerican lied,” echoing a slogan used at recent protests in St. Louis and Charleston, W.Va., against moves to bust unions and end retiree health and pension benefits by Patriot Coal as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

“Hi. I’m from coal country. Would you like a flyer on how MidAmerican is attacking our union?” Cheryl Durrant, wife of a retired miner, said to passersby as she and other participants handed out union leaflets with a header that read, “SAFETY FIRST Why does MidAmerican want to put miners’ lives at greater risk?”

“Just up the canyon from Deer Creek, nine miners and rescuers were killed in 2007, when the nonunion Crandall Canyon mine collapsed because of failures by management to safely operate the mine,” the flyer said. Among those employed at Deer Creek are miners who used to work at Crandall Canyon before the collapse, as well as veterans of the disaster at the Wilberg Mine in Emery County, Utah, where bosses’ profit drive led to an explosion in 1984 that killed 27 miners.

The bosses at Deer Creek want “to gut the union’s safety committee by reducing the size from 14 members to three,” Kim Brady, who has worked at the mine for 29 years, told the Militant. “That means one safety committee member per shift.” According to the union, bosses also want to replace the rank-and-file elected safety committee with one hand-picked by the company.

Ralph Keele, chairman of the union safety committee, said he was fired March 7 after filing a complaint with the Mine Safety and Health Administration for “tagging out unsafe mine equipment and for physical abuse by the mine manager.”

Keele, who has worked at the mine for 32 years, and another fired miner were reinstated by a court order in April. A third fired miner is awaiting a hearing.

A day after the rally here, the miners’ bus headed west to Omaha, Neb., to protest outside the CenturyLink Convention Center during the annual stockholders meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate of well-known capitalist Warren Buffet and parent company of MidAmerican Energy.

Joining the action in Omaha were a group of retired UMWA miners from Moberly, Mo. Clifford McClintock, a former Utah miner who now works in a Steelworkers-organized factory, drove up from Springfield, Mo.

“They’re going after everything the union stands for,” Lou Shelley, a UMWA District 22 representative, told the Militant. “They want to gut our safety and health care. Miners can’t take personal days, holidays or vacation until a new contract is approved.”

Shelley said Deer Creek bosses want contract provisions that would allow hiring of nonunion contract labor and for bosses to perform union work. The company hasn’t hired any new miners for a long time, Shelley said. “We have lost 35 members, who either quit or retired. They want to whittle the union down through attrition.”

Shelley, who worked at the Deer Creek mine for more than 30 years, was president of UMWA Local 1769 during the hard-fought strike in 2003-2004 at the Co-Op Mine near Huntington. His local provided crucial labor solidarity during that struggle.

“Energy West Mining Company is bargaining in good faith” and “committed to a fair resolution,” Maria O’Mara, company spokesperson, said in a phone interview. Energy West directly operates Deer Creek and is a subsidiary of PacifiCorp, which is a subsidiary of MidAmerican.

“They want to take away the health benefits of the widows, too,” said Arlene Schade, a miners’ widow from Wellington, Utah. “These men gave up a lot to win medical care. We are not asking for government handouts, just what our husbands earned.”

Schade said her father and six uncles all got black lung. “They all worked most of their lives in the UMWA and were part of building it. I feel honored to be asked to come on this trip. It’s my turn to help now.”

The UMWA is organizing protest actions against Patriot Coal May 21 in St. Louis and June 4 in the Evansville, Ind., area.
 
 
Related articles:
London rallies oppose hospital service cuts
Bangladesh garment workers fight to protect life and limb
On the Picket Line
 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home