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In 1919, 18-year-old Vito Bonacci left his birthplace, the Calabrian town of Decollatura in southern Italy, and set out for America where industrialization, railroad expansion and mining demands for unskilled workers held promise of a better life.

As early as 1880, emigrants from over-populated, economically strapped and agriculturally depressed regions of Italy came to America to improve their lot. Many arrived as seasonal workers, earning enough money to take back to their homeland and reestablish their businesses. Some made frequent trips.

One was Vito's father, Dominick, who pulled coke, a coal residue used as fuel, in Carbon County's Castle Gate ovens and remarked that he liked the Intermountain climate. Most, though, arrived in this country to work and live. They sent for their brides, raised families, established Italian enclaves, became an inspiration to others and strove to maintain their language, customs, traditions, religious practices and beliefs.

Later, in a Pennsylvania coal mine, Vito sifted coke ash alongside his father. When relatives sent word of work in Utah's Sunnyside Mine, owned by Utah Fuel Company, they headed west. Vito, a union man, knew to keep quiet when hiring on.

"In 1921, Utah was rough. Didn't want unions. If they knew you were a member, they [wouldn't] give you a job," Vito said in interviews archived at University of Utah's Marriott Library.

For months, the Bonaccis filled in on the graveyard shift at Sunnyside's coke ovens. "We'd leave the house at eleven o'clock at night and if anyone got sick, laid off or drunk, we'd take their place pulling coke," Vito said.

In the controlled heating process that uses huge, airtight ovens to convert coal into coke, Vito was a scraper.

"They would put five or six tons of coal in one oven," he explained. "I'd go over it with a long scraper to [tamp] it off nice and level."

When burned correctly, impurities would be baked out of the coal so it "would come out just like split wood," he said.

Sunnyside coal was reputed both for its "excellent coking properties" and commercial market. In the 1920s, more than 700 ovens were turning coal into coke and more than 1,000 men were on the company's payroll.

Like most miners, Vito Bonacci lived in a company-owned house. He was given scrip rather than cash to purchase goods at the company store. He was also stereotyped as an "objectionable foreigner." He was not alone. Unprotected by labor unions, immigrant miners suffered discrimination, wage inequity, inadequate housing, bloated rental charges and hazardous working conditions.

According to Utah historian Philip Notarianni, "the realities of tense, sometimes violent struggles between management and labor raised questions [for immigrant miners] about whether freedom and justice existed in Utah."

In 1920, 2,064 union members worked in Utah, where coal companies did not sanction unionization and fired those who actively did. Nevertheless, Frank Bonacci — a relative and neighborhood labor organizer for the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) — set up numerous "clandestine" meetings to address miners' concerns.

"Many didn't know what a union could do for them," said Vito.

On April 1, 1922, reacting to 30 percent wage cuts, Utah coal miners finally joined a nationwide movement and went on strike.

"Evicted from our company homes, the United Mine Workers gave us tents to live in," Vito said. "We thought we were in good shape until scabs — farmers from Emery and Sanpete counties who knew nothing about mining — came in and made big money."

There was violence. The state militia was called in. When the strike ended, the coal companies restored original wages while rejecting unions. Frank was blacklisted, his family taking the brunt. Having the same surname, Vito struggled for years to find steady work. But together they did help organize Carbon County's coal miners.

In 1933, Utah coal companies accepted the UMWA. In 1936, Frank Bonacci became the first Italian-American elected to the Utah House of Representatives. And Vito remained a vocal union man for life.

Eileen Hallet Stone co-authored "Missing Stories" with Leslie Kelen. She may be reached at ehswriter@aol.com. Additional sources: Notarianni's "Italianita in Utah" and Helen Papanikolas' "The Peoples of Utah."