Vol. 71/No. 33 September 10, 2007
At the portal of the nonunion Dugout mine near here, miners and coal haulers stopped to check out the Militant and talk. A truck driver who works a 72-hour week asked us to stop by her home to sign her up for a subscription. A miner going in to work told us his leg had been badly broken when coal burst out.
A team going door-to-door in Price met an older woman who told us, My husband was a union miner. Two of my sons have worked in nonunion mines, and one lost his leg. So I know why unions are important.
At a local grocery store, a union pipe line worker from Texas working in Utah said, Ill do anything to help the cause.
Not everyone held this view. One worker told me, Every job has occupational hazards. I havent been working for Murray that long, but I know Murrays mines are safe.
Teams fanned out to mine centers in Colorado and Wyoming. One team traveled to Somerset, Colorado, where three mines are located. Another went to Rangely, Colorado, where the unionized Deserado mine is.
A miner who has worked four months at Deserado after working at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah said, This is a safer mine, because of the union.
To date more than 141 subscriptions and 660 single copies of the Militant have been sold in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming.
They sold 44 copies of the paper, 8 while going door to door in Girard and 36 at the gate of the nearby Crown II mine. One miner took 5 copies for others in the mine.
Miners reported that Crown II may be closing in the near future.
At the McKinley mine in Tse Bonito and the Peabody mine in Kayenta, more than 70 miners picked up packets of recent issues with coverage on the Utah disaster. Both mines are organized by the United Mine Workers of America.
They dont have the union up there, said a miner at McKinley, referring to the mine where the disaster occurred.
Fortunately, we have a strong safety committee, said a surface miner at the Kayenta mine, where miners will be voting on a contract this week.
During door-to-door sales near Window Rock, a former uranium miner said, When there is no union, the owners get away with anything.
Related articles:
Militant teams in Britain reach coal miners
Young Socialists get out truth in mining regions
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