This event capped off an early morning expanded picket line June 30 at the Pittsburg and Midway (P&M) mine gate. The two activities were called in response to four UMWA members who crossed the line in the past week.

"We wanted to let P&M and [parent company] Chevron know that we're not demoralized or scared and that we're stronger than ever," Sue Hunzie told the Militant. Hunzie is a substitute teacher and wife of a striker. She along with 50 other wives of miners, women miners, and other supporters in the community helped organize, make the banners for, and lead the expanded picket. One hundred supporters attended the event, which was called on short notice. Among them were members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Letter Carriers union, and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA).

Strike supporter Barb Carlisle and Hunzie explained how their grandfathers helped organize the UMWA in Kemmerer in the early 1900s. Hunzie said the miners "organized meetings in secret in my grandfather's wine cellar."

Carlisle said, "My grandpa helped start the union that got us our first eight-hour day at the mine. He died from black lung 47 years ago." Another supporter, Mary Service, explained, "We fought hard and long to get the eight-hour day. We aren't going back!"

Six weeks into the strike by UMWA Local 1307, there have been no new negotiations. Bosses at P&M, a division of Chevron Corp., want the workers to accept a 12-hour workday, seven days a week. Under the expired contract miners worked three eight-hour shifts, Monday through Friday, with overtime paid for weekend work. The company is offering neither a pay raise for working miners nor a pension increase for retirees. It demands miners pay a portion of their medical benefits. Under the old contract miners were covered for 100 percent of their health-care costs.

Retired miner Richard Peart and his wife Christina were at the downtown triangle June 30. Peart worked at Kemmerer for 20 years and retired in 1987 at age 62. Suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, he is confined to a wheelchair and needs an oxygen breather at all times. "What happens in this contract will affect me and other retirees." Peart stressed. "I retired with $385 for a pension. If it wasn't for Medicaid and Social Security we couldn't survive. Even with that it's not enough. We'll be out here as long as it takes." Peart and his wife are regulars at all strike support events.

The 230 members of UMWA Local 1307 in Wyoming joined 300 miners from sister UMWA Local 1332 two weeks after they went on strike at P&M's McKinley mine in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, located in the Navajo Nation.  
 
Contracts to expire at other mines
The UMWA faces contract expiration dates at five additional coal mines in the West within the next two months. These include Peabody Coal's Kayenta and Black Mesa mines on the Navajo reservation in Kayenta, Arizona, where the contracts expire August 31.

The 'Little Chicago' Review and Kemmerer Gazette, both published here, carried a written statement by P&M as well as comments made by UMWA international president Cecil Roberts from a June 26 radio interview conducted by KMER/KAOX. The radio station allowed Kemmerer mine manager Steve Johnson to read the statement for P&M. Roberts was interviewed but not afforded the same courtesy to prepare a statement.

Miners called the radio station and protested the unfair treatment, causing the station to pull the program. This, together with Johnson's denial that the coal company was demanding a seven-day work schedule and his claim that the union has not requested negotiations, set off a flurry of letters from miners to the editors of the two papers.

In the same issue, the 'Little Chicago' Review printed the company's proposed Memorandum of Understanding, a rider attached to the contract. It states, "The parties have agreed that the employer may establish flexible work assignments at the operation and all related facilities...in order to provide continuous operations seven (7) days a week.... The employer shall be entitled to operate its mine continuously. The basic workweek shall be established by the employer."

Hoping to demoralize the strikers, the two local newspapers carried a letter by UMWA member LaVerne Marchione, one of the four line-crossers. In it, she says she went back to work to be able to keep her adoptive son. "The union could make something happen if they wanted to. But they're not!" Marchione wrote. " We all know nothing is happening to get us back to work. In the event of the mine being shut down, this is an all too real and close possibility. Don't let that happen!... Tell your union you're going back to work with or without them. Turn it around, make them decide if they really are there for you! Come back to work! Provide for your families. Stand up for yourselves!"

In an obvious attempt to smear the strikers, the 'Little Chicago' Review ran a front-page picture of a "jackrock" beside the interview with UMWA international president Roberts. The caption under the photo read, "Motorists are advised to be on the lookout for these spiked devices, caltrops, which were dispersed along the road to the power plant and BTI, most likely by someone on the miners' side of the strike issue. Sergeant Scott Miller of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said damage done to a vehicle...plus lost time, etc., added up to a felony charge."

Strikers report harassment of the unionists by the local police and sheriff's department. At the June 30 support action in the downtown triangle park, cops threatened to arrest some of the protesters for disturbing the peace because passing motorists were honking in support. Several strikers said company people have been visiting shop and restaurant owners in the area. According to Local 1307 president Elbert Harmon, company people tell the store owners that "if they continue to support the UMWA they will discontinue affiliation and business with their stores."  
 
Support grows for strikers
Support from the community is evident from the number of pro-union signs and banners one sees when driving into Kemmerer and nearby Diamondville. On June 27, a delegation from USWA Local 15320 at General Chemical, a soda ash deep mine near Green River, Wyoming, came to the strike headquarters with cash and food donations for Local 1307's new food pantry. The strikers held a lunch time rally with the Steelworkers. Representatives from USWA Local 13214, which organizes the FMC soda ash mine near Green River, also donated cash and joined strikers on the picket line.

On June 30 Ed Hinkle, a member of UMWA Local 1984 from Rangely, Colorado, traveled with his daughter Starla Hinkle, an oil pipeline worker, to present strikers with a check and letter of support from his union local. Hinkle works at Blue Mountain Energy's Deserado mine, where they went through a 76-day strike last year. Hinkle told those at strike headquarters, "We heard what they [P&M] were demanding. If they get away with it we'll be next."

Hinkle told the Militant, "The key to winning this thing is organizing solidarity. We're discussing in my local and the Hayden, Colorado, local doing a food drive and we'll come up with other ways to support this fight. I'll report to my union local and we're going to discuss what more we can do to expand solidarity." Ed and Starla Hinkle joined the picket line and support activities in downtown Kemmerer.

Local 1307 president Harmon reported, "We have gotten support from UMWA locals in Utah, North Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming. People from the community who have lived here all their lives have stopped by to donate cash or to the food pantry. Other unions have sent support and walked our picket line. Just recently a national appeal has gone out to all AFL-CIO-affiliated unions to organize solidarity with our fights at McKinley and here at Kemmerer."

Striker Matt Krall, a miner for 27 years, explained, "The company thinks they are in a stronger position since four members crossed the picket line. They don't realize it, but they created a stronger union here. The rally we held yesterday is an example of this. When the four crossed the picket line you could tell people got a little worried. But when the Steelworkers from the soda ash mines brought that support it helped change that. The support and the rally we did was a big help to turn the tide."

Krall added, "Any union or organization that wants to help us out, we are asking for and welcome your support. We want you to come to Kemmerer with your support. This fight is everybody's fight."

Letters of support or contributions and requests for more information can be addressed to: Kemmerer Miners Relief Fund, c/o UMWA Local 1307, P.O. Box 261, Diamondville, WY 83116-0261 or call (307) 877-1443.  
 
 
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