Miller also purged the executive board that had been appointed under the Boyle administration. Miller dismissed 20 of the 24 board members, then named 13 of his own and seven of Yablonski's supporters to the board. Miller believed he had given himself a solid majority on the board, but to his dismay Boyle cronies still dominated the board. Miller assumed that miners who had won election in 1972 were MFD supporters. But many were actually Boyle men who had been elected by the rank-and-file merely because they were better known than the MFD candidates. They had supported MFD as a means of hanging onto power, not because they supported Miller or the democracy movement. Even many Miller supporters on the board broke with him before the year was out, claiming that he was mismanaging the union. Miller's district appointments suffered the same fate. Most district officers owed their loyalty to Boyle and the district leaders he had appointed. Miller drew on this pool of talent for his district appointments, and ended up appointing more Boyle men. Conflict between the Miller administration and district leaders quickly broke into the open. Despite the Miller administration's problems, Miller made a number of changes which democratized UMWA. At the union's 1973 convention, Miller won support for virtually all the changes he proposed. Among the most important reforms was letting UMWA districts elect their own presidents and other officers. Miller "certainly got democracy restored to that the Union and the local union meetings were always democratic meetings with some of the guys serving as the local officers -- they were good guys. It was good to see they were accountable to their membership." Miller's democracy movement extended to collective bargaining as well. The union's constitution was amended to give union members the right to ratify contracts, as well as formulate contract proposals. Tentative agreements were now reviewed by a "bargaining council" rather than the president and his aides. Additionally, Miller built a large and competent research department to assist with contract negotiations. A third Miller reform came in the area of politics. Miller established UMWA's first PAC, the Coal Miners' Political Action Committee (COMPAC). COMPAC gave the union the financial and political leverage it needed in order to become more effective on the state and national level. COMPAC put financial muscle behind the union's political endorsements, giving the union legislative access and more political influence. COMPAC quickly began pressing Congress on the need for a federal black-lung program by lobbying and organizing demonstrations. Finally, Miller greatly expanded the union's workplace health and safety staff.