[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.In Property Relations: Renewing the Anthropological Tradition, ed.C.M.Hann, 214–232.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Verdery, Katherine1996 What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Watts, Michael J.2006 Development and Global Neoliberalism.In Culture and Development in a Globalising World, ed.S.Radcliffe, 30–58.London: Routledge.SIXApproaching Industrial Democracy in Nonunion Mines: Lessons from Wyoming’s Powder River BasinJessica M.SmithIn both popular and academic imaginations, the coal industry is often characterized by strong unions and dramatic strikes.In the decade after World War II, unionization rates in the coal mining industry exceeded 80 percent (Lichtenstein 2002:56).When the center of the U.S.coal industry shifted to western surface mines in the mid-1980s, however, most of the new operations were nonunion worksites.The surface mines surrounding Gillette in northeastern Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, which currently supply over a third of all coal burned in U.S power plants, played a key role in this shift.1 The last major union drive in the basin took place at Black Thunder Mine—one of the largest mines in the country—in 1987, about ten years after most of the region’s mines were first opened.Based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in Gillette, this chapter traces the historical and cultural factors contributing to the region’s nonunion status.After presenting the history of unionization in the basin,2 it traces the debates surrounding job security and self-representation that contributed to the 1987 defeat of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and its subsequent decline in regional influence.In particular, the chapter highlights the role western tropes of independent yet hardworking cowboys played in the community-wide debate.At the same time that many miners take pride in their nonunion status, he discussion also demonstrates that they have developed camaraderie-filled workplace relationships that resonate with the solidarity commonly prized by unionized workers and activists.Finally, the chapter argues that women miners in the basin have successfully integrated themselves into these family-like work relationships, countering the existing research on women miners that tends to emphasize the difficulties they face in the industry.The Gillette case thus provides a possible example of workers cultivating close-knit, dignified, and respectful work relationships with their peers and many managers without formalized union structures.Most of the miners continue to be white, corresponding with demographic trends for the county and the state.According to the 2004 census, 97 percent of Campbell County residents identified themselves as white non-Hispanics, compared with 95 percent in Wyoming and 80 percent in the United States overall.Data available on-line at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/56/56005.html.Historical Precedents of Unionization in the Powder River BasinReeling from the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s, major oil companies and government figures turned to the domestic coal reserves along the Rocky Mountains as an “All-American” solution to the national energy crisis.At the beginning of the boom in the Powder River Basin, an estimated 50 billion tons of low-sulfur coal lay in deposits that stretched for miles and approached 100 feet in height.In addition to their size and low levels of pollutants, these seams were desirable because they were located close to the surface and could be easily extracted with large machinery.By the mid-1980s fifteen mines had begun major operations in the area, producing nearly 100 million tons of coal a year with a workforce that had more than doubled the town’s population to approximately 20,000.The boom caught the attention of the national media not only because Gillette was touted as the nation’s first modern boomtown but also because the mines were “union free,” in the words of management, despite forceful campaigns by the UMWA.Establishing and keeping these mines union free comprised one branch of larger anti-union corporate strategies in the 1970s and 1980s (Durrenberger and Erem 1999; Lichtenstein 2002).The establishment of the mines as nonunion began with the first efforts at recruitment.The oil companies operating the mines focused their efforts on traditionally nonunion areas such as the ranching regions of Wyoming and the farm belts of North and South Dakota.These corporations also hired miners from regions experiencing high unemployment, including Arizona’s copper belt and Minnesota’s taconite range.The biggest incentives for many of the workers were the unprecedented wages and benefits that surpassed the standards for comparable unionized workplaces.The lowest starting average hourly pay at the mines was two dollars an hour higher than the UMWA’s average highest starting pay (Brown 1981:A2).Along with high wages, companies offered unparalleled benefits that included full health, dental, and vision coverage for workers and their families, plus attractive pension plans and opportunities to invest in the corporations.They also offered grievance procedures taken directly from the union contracts with other energy companies, but they departed from those standards by eliminating specialized job titles and positions.In these mines, all hourly employees directly involved in coal processing and equipment maintenance would be classified as “technicians” hired and trained to be multi-skilled.3These efforts were aimed at discouraging the new wave of miners from unionizing during the boom.Even though both Wyoming and labor historians have tended to focus on the Kemmerer, Rock Springs, and Sheridan areas in their studies of unionization, the only two Gillette mines in operation before the boom were both unionized.Employees at the Wyodak Mine and adjacent power plant, originally developed in 1924, voted to unionize in March 1973.All but 4 of the mine’s qualified employees voted in the election, and they joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) by a final tally of 139 to 86 (The Gillette News-Record 1973:5).In May 1984 Wyodak’s miners voted to join the UMWA.Of the 53 workers, 32 cast ballots for the UMWA, 17 voted to stay with the IBEW, and 4 abstained.Power plant employees remained affiliated with the IBEW (Kolenc 1984:1).Two years later the 40 remaining workers at Wyodak voted to decertify, in part because they were earning an average of two to three dollars an hour less than their new, nonunion counterparts in the basin.Belle Ayr, the region’s first large-scale mine, was opened in 1972 by AMAX, a coal company based in Indianapolis.Steeped in traditions from the central and eastern U.S [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]