Mine Workers Union President Miller Speaks of Plans for Internal Reform

Arnold Miller, president of the United Mine Workers (UMW), described last night how his disillusionment with the leadership of the UMW led to frustrating efforts at reform and finally to his election as head of the 195,000-member union.

Speaking to 100 students at Cabot Hall, Miller said that the union under former president W.A. "Tony" Boyle had been "completely unresponsive" to the rank and file membership. Miller, running at the head of a reform party, Miners for Democracy, defeated Boyle last December in an election ordered by the Labor Department.

Miller's first effort at reform inside the union came in 1969 when he organized the Black Lung Organization. The organization consequently persuaded Joseph Yablonski to run for the presidency of the union on reform ticket.

After Yablonski lost the election, which was later overturned for irregularities, he and his daughter were murdered.

After the election, Miller made efforts to compensate victims of black lung disease and was, he said, "treated like dirt" by union officials. Suits filed by his group led to a new federally-supervised election, in which he was elected.

Miller plans to pursue several avenues of reform since his election. He said that he hopes to establish a strike fund to strengthen the UMW's bargaining position with coal companies. He added that the union has not struck in the last 20 years.

"I know the companies are going to be very unhappy when they find out our plans for the strike fund," he said.

Miller said he will soon make all of the union's positions elective in order to make the union leadership more responsive to the rank and file.

He hopes to have more contact with other unions, in order to counteract the "fuel energy conglomerate" with a "fuel energy workers conglomerate."