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Show At he Salt Lake Tribune Miners a warm ovation Sept. 30 when take on the a union special convention in Las Vegas. UMWAInternational President Cecil Roberts thenissued a statement calling on American workers to support the miners “as theyfight for justice and dignity.” Salt Lake City-based mem- Sunday, October 12, 2003 they were introduced onstageat Kingstons 6 Continuedfrom Al bers them UTAH They didn’t figure that sooner or later, a group of work ers wouldbe able to find out what their rights are andto fight back for what's justifiable and what they deserve.” Charles Reynolds, personnel manager for CW Mining Co., the company’s formal name, denies Co-op was taking advantage of the miners, most of whom hail from Sinaloa state in westcentral Mexico. “Our company does not discriminate in our hiring in any way. We employ both Hispanic-Americans and anyone else who applies for a job, when we have an available opening,” he says. The miners’ case is being investigated by the National Labor Relations Boardat the request of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). Once vibrant but now struggling, the union has made the Co-op miners a cause celebre. Their plight is evidence to the UMWAthat modern workers remain subject to corporate mistreatment that most Americans thought was eradicated long ago with immigrants still especially vulnerable to exploitation because of their limited Englishspeaking abilities and fears that deportation will face any complainers who enter the United States illegally. Seven of the miners received of AFL-CIO’s Building Trades local union chapters responded with a food drive. Teaming with Utahns Against Hunger and Utah Jobs with Jus tice, a worker advocacy group, the union locals delivered four truckloads of canned vegetables, fruit, beans, tortillas, rice and other foodstuffs to the Co-op miners “It kind of makes you mad that somebody could abuse people that badly,” says Corey Hilton, chairman of the Building Trades Organizing Project. “We don’t want any kids going hungry.” Unless the labor dispute goes on indefinitely, most food needs of the miners and their families should be covered by the Emery County Community Service food bank, operated in Castle Dale by the Southeastern Utah Associa tion of Local Governments. But service coordinator Kathy Thomas says that with 30 families already having cometo the food bank for assistance, “we're thinning out. That’s a sizable number for a small area like this. We have donation sites all over the countyso individuals can donate food if theylike.” Thomassays her agency cannot help the miners meet rent payments or utility bills, assistance that will have to come from the UMWAor Catholic relief agencies. Poros sy Ryan Gauprarrn/ The Sait Lake Tribune Celso Panduro, outside his home in Huntington with his wife, Elizabeth Morales, and their son Daniel, says it is difficuit not to be working, but says he “couldn't close my eyes any more” to the miners’ treatment. Panduro lost his job at the Co-op Mine for protesting the firing of Bifi Estrada, above left, who was trying to improve the working conditions at the mine with the help of labor organizer Jim Stevenson, above right. Adding spice to the conflict is the fact that Co-op Mining is widelyrecognized as a holding of the polygamous Kingston family. Longtime UMWAInternational board member Mike Dalpiaz, Helper’s former mayor, says that because of suspicions about the family’s operations, “we are going to open this up and see what the Kingstons are doing on different playing fields. Somebody has to put an end to this.” For his part, Estrada says, “we’re fighting this, not because they're a polygamous family but because of what they do at this mine. We want what'sfairat that mine.” He says he heard grumbling about the low wages (average concoction designed to preclude employees from airing legitimate grievances. Estrada eventually became part of a group that arranged a pay for a Utah coal mineris $21 UMWA labor organizer Jim Stevenson, who urged the group to keep a low profile while electing a “leadership committee” that could advise workers of their rights under the National LaborRelations Act. “They learned very quickly,” Stevenson says of the miners, per hour), lack of benefits and potentially dangerous working conditions from the day he started as a miner’s helper.It did not take him long to perceive that the mine’s so-called union, the International Association of United Workers, was a company meeting in late August with whoEstrada claims stood up to their bosses twice last month when they threatened disciplinary action against two colleagues, Oscar Sosa and Juan Salazar, for alleged infractionsof workrules. Estrada says the showdown over Salazar occurred Sept. 19. 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