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    Fighting for workers
October 7, 2009

Caputo to take oath as District 31 international VP of UMWA

By Misty Poe

FAIRMONT — “I will never, ever forget where I came from.”

When Mike Caputo raises his hand today to take the oath as the District 31 international vice president of the United Mine Workers of America, it will be to fulfill that promise he made to the members of the union who elected him.

A Rivesville boy. The son of a union man who taught his sons that everything they had — from the food on the table to the clothes on their back to the health care they received — was because of the ones who fought for a union and fought to keep it strong. The 19-year-old who stepped into the mines and proved himself not only a hard worker, but a leader. The man who, at the encouragement of his coworkers and friends, ran for the House of Delegates on a lark and 13 years later holds the third most powerful position there.

The man who became a member of the UMWA on Feb. 22, 1977, and who will now represent more than 16,500 members in three coal-producing states when he takes his position on the union’s international executive board.

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