[As the crisis deepens, profit in heartland rialism…]

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As the crisis deepens, profit in heartland rialism, employers large-scale tle- 11.%.

The 3-year contract with the employers' "Bituminous Coal Operators Association"

(BCOA) came up for renewal on December 6th 1977.

The BCOA refused to negotiate in any serious way because they wanted to provoke a battle with the miners, a battle they thought could be won.

They banked on high stockpiles of coal; an assessment that 50% of coal production (from non-union mines) could not be closed down; and on a conviction that the rank and file miners would not be able to hold out for very long.

• Wildcat strike In the summer of 1977, a wildcat (unofficial strike) over health provisions had been provoked by the BCOA and 80,000 miners had struck for 10 weeks.

In battles fought out in the 1940s the UMWA won the most comprehensive health care system of any union.

A medical card issued to miners and families.

This card entitled them to free services at any clinic or hospital that was part of the system.

payments from the coal companies.

The , payments were based on the amount of coal mined and the number of hours worked.

However the problem was that benefits were tied to companies' profits.

The most important struggle to prevent the employers from having their way was fought in a bitter strike, by the United Mine Workers of America, which finished 110 days after it started on December 6th 1977.

A series of violent and keenly fought strikes provided the background to this battle and the militancy of the UMWA rank and file was reflected in the demands drawn up at the 1976 UMWA conference in Cincinnatti.

These demands included the right to strike, full-time union health and safety committee members paid by the company, a six-hour work day, expanded health benefits to include full eye and dental carè, equal pensions for all retired miners, and a substantial wage increase.

Serious was their key the the * Benefits paid 1 widows of UMWA membe were to be cut.

(Details, from Militant (SWP) 28/4/78).

The rank and file mine:

responded bitterly t Miller's attempt to foist th contract on them.

Presidents and Vict Presidents ' of 23 Illino Locals sent a telegram t Miller saying:

"This is to inform yo that the rank and file miner in District 12 UMWA a local officials feel that afte reading the proposed agree ment that you should resig immediately."

Hundreds of miners trav elled Washington invaded the UMWA head quarters and prevented meeting of the bargaining Rank and file The importance of this move, a reflection of rank and file feeling throughout the UMWA was not lost on the council which voted on February 12th by 30 votes to 6 to reject the contract.

By this stage in the strike the loss of coal production was beginning to bite-particularly in Ohio.

Chrysler, Ford and General Motors were threatening cuts in production and lay-offs.

Carter was in a difficult position.

The Miller leadershiployal Democrats-was increasingly discredited.

Carrying gun

Miller himself was reportedly carrying a gun for self-defence and had ordered the union headquarters to close. He told reporters:

"The people who barged into the headquarters are the same 'right to strike? bunch that caused us all that trouble last year".

In the period after the first contract was rejected a major development took place within the coalfields.

Miller had been reelected in 1977 with only around 40% of the vote in a three-corner fight for the union presidency.

New elections Now petitions began to circulate demanding Miller resign and that a new election be held.

In West Virginia, for example, 15,300 miners signed-and this is Miller's home state!

While threats of plant closures were plastered all over the capitalist newspapers the government decided to try to trick the miners back to work.

On February 20th, an agreement between UMWA officials and the Pittsburgh

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Coal payments. the UMWA Benefits Fund which was financed through