Union Federation Urges Chevron to Settle Coal Strike

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) today urged the Chevron Corporation to settle the ongoing strike at the company's coal mines in Arizona and Wyoming.

Currently, 520 members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) are on strike against Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company (P&M), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, at two coal mines in the United States. The strike at the McKinley mine near Window Rock, Arizona on the Navajo Nation, involving 310 UMWA members, has been ongoing since May 14. The strike at the Kemmerer mine in Kemmerer, Wyoming, involving 210 UMWA members, has been ongoing since May 28. The UMWA is affiliated at the global level to the ICEM.

In a letter sent today to David J. O'Reilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chevron Corporation, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs expressed concern about "the company's retention of outside legal counsel which has the reputation for promoting, instead of resolving, conflict; the company's hiring of military-type security guards (one of whom has already been arrested by Navajo police), and the company's demand that the union accept a pension package inferior to those offered by your competitors in the coal industry."

"The United Mine Workers of America is a valued affiliate of our federation," Higgs continued,"and we intend to do everything possible to support them, including notifying our affiliates around the world with members employed by Chevron Corporation and Caltex Petroleum Corporation about the ongoing dispute. I strongly urge you to do everything possible to bring about a speedy end to this
dispute."

Already responding to the solidarity appeal is the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE), which represents approximately 2,000 Chevron oil and chemical workers in the United States. 'We will support the UMWA in any way we can," said PACE Executive Vice President Robert Wages. "We will mobilize our members at Chevron's oil and chemical operations to ensure that justice is won at these coal mines." PACE is also affiliated globally to the ICEM.

"We are grateful for this show of support and solidarity," said Jerry Jones, UMWA Vice President and the union's chief negotiator with P&M. "Our members on strike at McKinley and Kemmerer are stronger and more resolved than ever and, with this show of support from other Chevron workers in the U.S. and around the world, I am certain we will win a fair and just contract with P&M."

The ICEM represents 20 million workers in 120 countries employed in the energy, chemicals, mining, paper and pulp, rubber and tire, glass, building materials, ceramics and environmental services industries.

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