After more than two year struggle, miners vindicated

Intermountain Catholic

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Allyson Kennedy (above), a former Co-Op miner, gives a time line of the strike and the ensuing legal battles that eventually led to the C.W. Mining Company's attempt to sue more than 150 people, including miners, journalists, and representatives of churches and agencies who aided the striking miners over the past two-and-a-half years.

PRICE — June 4 was a day for speeches and heartfelt gratitude on the part of representatives of the 75 former Co-Op miners who have withstood more than two-and-a-half years of struggles to unionize and improve the safety of the Co-Op Mine, owned by the powerful Kingston family. They also sought wages more in line with other mines in the area, and more dignified treatment.

Although unionizing the mine never became a reality, the miners and their supporters, including the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Utah Jobs With Justice, Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish, Price, Mission San Rafael, Huntington, The Salt Lake Tribune and a number of its reporters, The Militant Newspaper, The Price Sun Advocate, the Emery County Progress, and the Intermountain Catholic, among others, celebrated the May 1 voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit by the mine owners claiming defamation.

Among the more than 150 defendants named specifically in the law suit were Father Donald E. Hope, pastor of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish, Price, and Mission San Rafael, Huntington; Bishop (now Archbishop of San Francisco) George Niederauer; and Intermountain Catholic Editor Barbara Stinson Lee, and Catholic News Service.

Dee Rowland, government liaison for the Diocese of Salt Lake City, and a strong supporter of the miner’s efforts, said she was relieved the case, one many thought was baseless, was dismissed.

Bill Estrada, one of the leaders of the strike that began Sept. 22, 2003 and resulted in a mass firing of miners seeking to unionize, welcomed supporters to a lunch and rally at the UMWA Hall in Price.

Estrada, whose firing for union organizing prompted the strike, recalled long, cold days and nights spent on picket lines by miners and their supporters, many of whom traveled from as far away as Kentucky to show their solidarity with the Utah miners. Dozens of the striking miners were undocumented, and faced deportation during the strike and the ensuing firings. However, as the dispute wore on, most of the miners found work in other mines. Allyson Kennedy, one of the strike leaders, said none of the miners were deported.

"The strength of our strike has gained respect far beyond Utah," Estrada said.

The miners’ jobs were reinstated in September 2004, after mediation. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and union representatives agreed on union representative elections, but the lawsuit charging the miners and their supporters with defamation, "shifting the battle from the picket line to the court," Estrada said, put an end to collaboration, and more firings ensued.

"We are confident that our struggles here will put other miners in other states in a better position to fight for safety, miners’ rights, and dignity," said Estrada.

Mike Dalpiaz of the UMWA in Price thanked everyone who "came to the rescue of the miners," and, through the press, "made our fight a world-wide fight."

Dalpiaz especially thanked the Catholic communities of Price and Huntington, and the Diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry "for their continued support of immigrant workers."

Bob Butero of UMWA Region 4, said the war for workers’ rights "will only be won when all workers in the world have equal benefits and rights. Workers seeking justice won’t immigrate if justice is found at home... A wrong done to one worker is a wrong done to all, and an injury to one is an injury to all."

Kennedy cited miners’ support of their fellow workers and the support of the community at large and the press "for a growth in union interest in the area."

"Everyone in this room has been changed because of this struggle," she said. "You are examples for workers everywhere who fight for safety in mines, fair wages, and dignity in any workplace."

George Nichols of Jobs With Justice said the miners and their supporters "set a wonderful example of coming together and supporting each other in the face of intimidation and defeat."