Miners can keep chewing tobacco
The right to chew lives on.
That will be a relief to many of the coal miners Lou Shelly works with at Rocky Mountain Power’s Deer Creek mine.
“It caused a lot of stress for a lot of people for [the company] to say you can’t chew anymore,” said Shelly, who testified last month before an United Mine Workers of America arbitrator. Miners had challenged a ban on smokeless tobacco use at the Emery County mine.
Arbitrator Fred Butler ruled in the union’s favor Friday, determining that Energy West Mining Corp.’s new policy, officially implemented (but not enforced) July 1, violated the company’s collective bargaining agreement covering 276 Deer Creek miners and 17 prep plant workers.
Energy West is the mining subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Power and its parent companies, PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Holdings Co., which enacted the policy at all of their properties.
Butler ruled that chewing tobacco is a prior practice that should be allowed to continue because it is not in conflict with the existing collective bargaining agreement.
In addition, Shelly and other union witnesses at the arbitration session argued that many miners are addicted to chewing tobacco. They find it relaxing while they work deep beneath the ground, far from designated areas where use of tobacco would be permitted.
“It’s a totally different life underground,” said Shelly, who does not chew tobacco. “Chewing is almost like a rite of passage for many
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miners.”
Added Dave Maggio, international representative for the union’s Price-based district: “Now the men can go back to chewing tobacco, mining coal and doing their jobs instead of piddling around” with rules that do not enhance safety.
A company spokesman did not respond late Friday to a request for a comment.
mikeg@sltrib.com
11 Sept. 2009 Sltrib
