by James Parks, Jul 28, 2006

The coal-fired engine that is the drive by mine workers at Peabody Energy to form a union keeps picking up steam.

Three town councils in Kentucky recently passed resolutions supporting the miners’ efforts to join the  Mine Workers (UMWA). The unanimous votes in Morganfield, Uniontown and Sturgis, Ky., brings to 10 the number of local jurisdictions that have publicly stood behind the miners.

In recent years, the UMWA has responded to the requests of thousands of nonunion miners at Peabody’s facilities across the country for assistance in getting a voice at work. In December 2005, workers at 19 Peabody mines in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia launched the Justice at Peabody campaign.

Miners are asking political leaders in the communities where they live and work to back their efforts. The resolutions, which are all similar, state 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] 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.

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.  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.

The struggle to gain a voice for the miners has taken on even greater importance this year, because a union contract goes a long way toward improving safety conditions.

The danger of underground coal mines has been emphasized by the deaths of 36 miners since January, including five in Harlan County, Ky., and 12 in the Sago Mine explosion in West Virginia.  More miners have died on the job this year than in any full year since 2001, when 42 were killed.  More than 90 percent of the miners killed this year worked in nonunion mines.

Peabody, the world’s largest private coal company, provides 10 percent of the nation’s electricity and 3 percent of the world’s power.  The company employs some 8,300 miners at 33 mines in nine states.

Peabody systematically closed its union mines and replaced them with nonunion mines over the past 15 years, says Bob Gaydos, UMWA’s
assistant organizing director.

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