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Local Political Leaders Join Quest for Union at Peabody |
Miners seeking to form a union at Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal producer, are using their political strength to support the organizing effort.
The latest example of that strength came June 5 when the Nortonville (Ky.) City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting the miners’ quest to join a union. This is the fifth local legislative body in Peabody mining towns to back the workers since April. All the votes have been unanimous.
Other local councils backing the miners are Kentucky’s Union County Fiscal Court (the equivalent of the county council) and city councils in Morton’s Gap, Ky., Boonville, Ind., and Danville Township, Ill.
“Political action and political capacity are the union workers’ greatest assets,” says AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff. “It makes sense and is right for us to use our greatest asset to support our greatest need, which is organizing. That’s why the support of political leaders in these coalfield communities across the country is so important to the miners at Peabody.”
The Nortonville resolution, which is similar to the other four resolutions, states in part:
The workers employed in the coal industry deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and should have the right to freedom of association and the right to engage in collective bargaining without being subjected to pressure from their employer.
…the city of Nortonville, Kentucky, requests that Peabody Energy Corp. allow its employees to choose freely whether to be unionized by remaining neutral and not resorting to the use of pressure tactics, such as mandatory meetings on unionization, threats to close the mine, or any other form of interference or intimidation, and that Peabody agree to an expedited and fair process by which the employees can make a decision about unionization.
The Peabody miners are asking elected leaders in every town in which they work and live to pass the resolution, says June Rostan, lead community organizer for the Peabody campaign.
“The people in these towns support unions because they know the effect a union can have on their communities,” she says. “Lots of folks in these towns receive Mine Workers health care benefits when they retire [from union mines] and they know firsthand how a union can be good for the town.”
In recent years, the UMWA has responded to the requests of hundreds of nonunion miners at Peabody’s facilities across the country for assistance in organizing. In December 2005, the workers launched the Justice at Peabody campaign.
Peabody, which provides 10 percent of the nation’s electricity and 3 percent of the world’s power, employs some 8,300 miners at 33 mines in nine states. Peabody systematically closed its union mines and replaced production with nonunion mines over the past 15 years, says Bob Gaydos, UMWA’s assistant organizing director.
The Peabody miners have gained significant help from the religious community and the AFL-CIO in their struggle.
To level the playing field for workers trying to form unions, AFL-CIO unions including the UMWA are supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation, which has 259 co-sponsors in the House and Senate, would strengthen workers’ freedom to choose union representation through a majority sign-up process. It also would provide for binding arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for violations of labor law when workers seek to form a union.
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