The Militant - March 31, 2008 -- Women miners build New Mexico conference

Vol. 72/No. 13 March 31, 2008

Women miners build New Mexico conference

BY ALYSON KENNEDY
The Changing Woman Conference will be held on Monday, April 7, at the San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico. “American workers should be able to work without fear and harassment. In reality that is not what happens in mining and other fields,” Rosie Foster, conference organizer, told the Militant. Foster, who is also a member of International Operating Engineers Local 953, is a coal miner at one of the BHP owned surface mines near Farmington.

“This is the fourth annual conference and every year new people attend,” she continued. “You may encounter things at work and you are not sure if it is discrimination and harassment. You are made to feel that this is okay, or that it’s your fault. The conference is the place where you find information on what is discrimination and what you can do about it. You have to know your workers’ rights, especially if you are a woman.”

A media alert sent to the press says, “The goal of the conference is to address the racial and gender discrimination and sexual harassment often faced by Navajo women coal miners. As women working in a non-traditional field, these miners face challenges from their co-workers and supervisors that do not affect their male counterparts.”

The “Changing Woman” is part of a Navajo legend. The first Changing Woman Conference was held in 2005. A number of women miners who work at the BHP mines attended and spoke in the workshops about how they fight the discrimination they face on the job as women and as Native Americans.

Local 953 organizes coal miners at three surface mines and one underground mine located on the New Mexico side of the Four Corners area of the Navajo Nation. The majority of the miners are Navajo.

Anna O’Leary, a professor at the University of Arizona, will be the keynote speaker. O’Leary was president of the Morenci Miners Women’s Auxiliary, formed during the 1983-86 Phelps Dodge copper miners strike.

For more information on the 2008 Changing Woman Conference, contact Rosie Foster at rosiewil.foster@gmail.com.

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