The company wants to pay annual bonuses in lieu of wage increases over the next six years. Workers cannot collect a full pension until age 62, and only a partial pension at 55 no matter how many years they have worked at the mine. The company says it may close in 2006 when their contracts with power plants end. More than 90 percent of the mine workers are Navajo and workers considered the company demand discriminatory. Union negotiators in their proposed package agreed to accept this concession.
Production is already at the maximum.
The company has even bragged about the major increase in productivity in the last two years. Several other strikers made similar remarks on the picket line. No union members have crossed the line at McKinley and strikers continue to receive solidarity. The New Mexico AFL-CIO has provided a cargo truck full of food and is bringing another one this week. UMWA Local 1332, PO Box 3750, Window Rock, AZ 86515.