Soviet Miners Vote to Form 1st Free Union

A nationwide congress of coal miners put aside divisions today and adopted a plan by radical miners to form the Soviet Union’s first independent trade union.

The new Independent Trade Union of Miners has a potential membership of 2 million miners and could evolve into a potent new political and economic force with power over energy supplies.

Miners have been the most unified labor group in organizing protests and strikes. Their walkout last year threatened to leave much of the country without fuel.

The 900 delegates meeting in this industrial Ukrainian city vowed today to push ahead with demands for workers’ rights and better living conditions.

Delegates said they were prepared to strike again to enforce their demands, but not until after the Legislature of the Russian republic, now in session in Moscow, has had time to act on their complaints.

“The majority is for creating a new union, but there is a minority that believes in the survival of the old (official) union,” said Konstantin Fesenko, a miner from Donetsk, the heart of a major coal region 600 miles southwest of Moscow.

The government-sponsored National Congress of Trade Unions voted on Wednesday in Moscow to disband and form a voluntary association of unions, but the miners said they were not interested in joining.