NLRB rejects Kingston votes

Votes cast by members of the Kingston family's Davis County Cooperative will not be counted in a union election held at the Kingston-owned mine near Huntington, according to the National Labor Relations Board.

The NLRB, the federal agency that conducts elections to determine whether employees want union representation and investigates claims of unfair labor practices, confirmed Wednesday it rejected an appeal by C.W. Mining Co. contesting whether the ballots cast by more than 100 members of the Kingston family could be included in the results of a recent union representation election.

"They denied the requests for review, filed by the employer and the intervenor union, of a decision that I issued on Nov. 18," said B. Allan Benson, director of the NLRB's regional office in Denver. "The main issue in that decision was what the bargaining unit was going to be at the election held at the mine. And the primary issue there was whether members or relatives of members of the Davis County Co-Op would be allowed to participate."

Benson ruled that members and family of members of the Kingstons' Davis County Co-Op were ineligible to vote. The mine and its recognized union, the International Association of United Workers Union, challenged that decision but were denied in the Jan. 31 ruling.

On Wednesday, the United Mine Workers of America cheered the Jan. 31 decision but said the battle at C.W. Mining is far from over.

"The UMWA is pleased that the national NLRB has indicated its agreement with the Denver NLRB decision by rejecting C.W. Mining's appeal," Cecil Roberts, international president of the UMWA, said in a statement. "It is clear that including the votes of the Kingston family members would have stacked the deck heavily against the workers who risked a lot to finally be able to exercise their right to vote for union representation. This is a first step in winning the battle for the Co-Op miners, but there is much more to do."

Charles Reynolds, C.W. Mine manager, said he had not seen the ruling and was therefore unable to comment.

Benson said the agency will now proceed with trying to count what worker ballots were not challenged. How many there were isn't clear.

In addition to the 100 Davis Co-Op ballots, Benson said "there were a number of other challenged ballots, of employees who were discharged before the election was conducted."