Coal miners discuss how to fight discrimination

[struggle4progress]

Changing Woman Conference draws miners from five Western states

BY DANIELLE LONDON
AND BETSY FARLEY

FARMINGTON, New Mexico—“There are 22 women out of 228 miners working underground at BHP. This conference is baby steps to something that can be bigger,” said Lisa Kennedy, 36, an underground coal miner and member of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 953 at the BHP-owned San Juan mine near here. <snip>

Billed as a gathering to “teach, strengthen, encourage and inform working women, particularly those working in non-traditional fields,” the conference, which was sponsored by IUOE Local 953 and the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Law, drew about 50 people. <snip>

IUOE Local 953 organizes miners at three surface mines and one underground mine located on the New Mexico side of the Four Corners area of the Navajo Nation. Ninety percent of the miners there are Navajo. The conference also drew miners from Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. Four miners from the Co-Op mine in Huntington, Utah, participated in the conference and they were invited to speak during a lunchtime session about their more than 17-month battle for union representation.

“It was a success. Everybody walked away with more information,” said Rosie Kellywood, a heavy equipment operator on the surface at BHP for 12 years. “We learned more about each other and that’s just what we were hoping for.” Kellywood was one of the miners who initiated the idea for the conference and was one of its main organizers. “This is just the beginning,” she said. “The people want to do it again even stronger.” <snip>

http://www.themilitant.com/2005/6917/index.shtml