Jose Contreras, one of more than 25 miners fired before the union vote, spent six months unemployed before landing a job at another Emery County coal mine.
"The treatment is much better there," Contreras said through an interpreter. "We don't have any good memories of Co-Op."
Still, Contreras was one of 30 people standing on a picket line outside Co-Op's entrance Saturday afternoon, braving sub-freezing temperatures to demand mine management let in representation by the United Mine Workers of America.
Also on the picket line was Alyson Kennedy, who was fired last December and has since found work at a sawmill. She said the Co-Op Mine's owners, the polygamous Kingston family, have tried harassment and intimidation - including suing the UMWA - against the miners in their two-year fight.
"It hasn't worked, as you can see," Kennedy said. "People are not intimidated."
The Co-Op miners were joined Saturday by union representatives from Colorado, Arizona and Washington state, and members of Utah Jobs for Justice. The pickets chanted rallying cries, sang union songs and encouraged passing drivers to honk their horns. Some did, though none of the truckers hauling coal from the mine did.
"People blow horns because they know this is a complete injustice this company is getting away with," said Bill Estrada, whose firing in September 2003 for his union-organization efforts started the labor confrontation.
The out-of-state pickets said they came to show solidarity with the Co-Op miners.
"We all need to stick together as a union," said Marie Justice, president of a UMWA local representing a mine in the Navajo Nation, in Arizona. "That's what keeps us all strong."
The pickets' beef isn't just with the Kingstons, but with the National Labor Relations Board, which has yet to rule on the union-authorization vote held Dec. 17, 2004 - exactly one year ago Saturday.
"A year? I don't think that's fair or acceptable. I don't think anybody does," said Dave Maggio, a UMWA international representative based in nearby Price. "These guys, for two years, they've put their lives on hold."
When Estrada was fired, several dozen Co-Op miners, most of them Mexican-born workers, were locked out of the mine. CW Mining Co., the Kingston-owned company that owns the mine, contended the miners walked out voluntarily in support of Estrada - who, the company said, was fired for insubordination after falsifying a safety inspection record. Mine management did not return calls seeking comment Saturday.
The NLRB ruled in July 2004 that the miners were entitled to reinstatement, back pay and a union election. But before that union vote last December, CW Mining fired about 25 miners, most of them Latinos. The company said it found problems with the miners' Social Security numbers - and questioned whether some were working in the United States illegally.
The NLRB determined the fired miners were eligible to vote in the union election. Workers who were members of the Kingston family, though, were ineligible because their family ties made them part of management. That meant 108 of the 142 votes cast were thrown out. CW Mining challenged 27 of the remaining 34 votes.
So far the NLRB has counted a mere seven votes - two for the UMWA, and five for the company-controlled International Association of United Workers. George Neckel, director of Utah Jobs for Justice, called IAUW a yellow-dog union that has no elections and holds no meetings.
An administrative law judge will listen to an NLRB complaint March 14 in Price about CW Mining's firing of its miners. The Co-Op Mine's lawsuit against UMWA will be heard in federal court next month.
"What we hope for is a victory," Contreras said, "a victory where we can return to work and that we get back pay for the time we were out."
spmeans@sltrib.com
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Tribune business reporter Mike Gorrell contributed to this story.
