New Mining Council to Drive Solidarity, Strategy 

The USW’s first-ever Mining Council will work to better coordinate bargaining, safety and other priorities for the union’s 20,000 miners in the U.S. and Canada, International Secretary-Treasurer Myles Sullivan announced May 21. 

Sullivan said the council, bringing together miners from various industries and employers, will serve an essential role as the U.S. government guts safety agencies and as members in both countries continue fighting for better working conditions. 

“I want you to know how important the mining sector is to our union,” Sullivan said before announcing the council’s formation to a conference room of miners attending the USW’s Health, Safety and Environment Conference in Pittsburgh. 

“We want to learn from each other,” Sullivan, himself a Canadian miner, told the group. “If it’s happening in your place, it’s probably happened someplace else.” 

Sullivan said he’s working with District 11 Director Cathy Drummond and District 12 Director Gaylan Prescott to establish the council. The USW already has similar councils uniting USW members from the atomic, health care and other sectors.   

“We can’t rely on legislation anymore,” Sullivan said, noting that the U.S. government’s backsliding on labor laws requires the union to accomplish more at the bargaining table. “We have to do it ourselves.”