>I think a more intersting question is why was not the
>mine unionized?  
>
>Wojtek


I've worked along side the UMWA for a number of years and hope
to hear more of the inside story soon, but if West Virginia
is anything like the coal fields in Illinois a couple of factors
make union organizing more difficult today.

Due to mechanization fewer miners are needed to operate
a mine.  Typically coal mines operate in economically depressed
areas so decent jobs are difficult to come by.  As a result, mine
workers may feel lucky to be employed at all and unwilling to take
the risk of signing a union card.  They're quite aware that they can be easily replaced.

Smaller concentrations of workers at each mine makes organizing more expensive for the UMWA too.  Some mines only employ 20-30 workers.

In Illinois, Peabody Energy controls much of the mineral rights in the southern third of the state.  In the late 1970's and 1980's, Peabody closed many Illinois mines, blaming the Clean Air Act, and moved their  operations to non-union Powder River Basin mines in Wyoming.

Many of the miners who lost their jobs went into trucking or went to work at state and federal prisons in the region.  Now that the union mines have largely been eliminated in Illinois, Peabody is returning to reopen operations here.  But now it will have a much weaker union to deal with - if at all.

If there is a track record of organizing at the International Coal mine in West Virginia, this would be an opportune time for workers to organize and join the union.  With the all of the international media attention and outrage expressed by the families of the deceased, management would have a difficult time retaliating against the workers right now.

But again, I don't if any organizing has been conducted there.

Greg Boozell
gboozell@juno.com




		
 

___________________________________
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk