CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The president of the United Mine Workers of America admits there is “a lot to be down about” when it comes to the current state of the U.S. coal industry and possible darker days ahead as several coal companies reorganize.
“But one of my favorite quotes is that, ‘Fear knocked on the door and faith answered and nobody was there,’ so that’s what we’ve got to have,” Cecil Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America, told MetroNews.
Thousands of active and retired UMWA members along with their families, friends and other supporters were expected to be part of Friday’s UMWA Solidarity March and Rally in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania — drawing miners from Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky by busloads.
“We’ve got to have faith in God and faith in one another and we can get through this and that’s what this rally is all about,” Roberts said.
The rally comes at a time when Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal and Arch Coal are in bankruptcy. Peabody Coal is reportedly close to doing the same. In January, Bob Murray, president and CEO of Murray Energy, said on MetroNews “Talkline” he was not sure his company would be able to avoid bankruptcy.
Earlier this week, Alpha filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia to modify the company’s obligations to workers and retirees as the company reorganizes.
Roberts said it’s time to do away with bankruptcy courts altogether.
“(If) Companies petition for bankruptcy, they get whatever they ask for. It’s an automatic thing. It’s more complicated to go to the DMV and get your driver’s license than it is to be successful in a bankruptcy court,” he claimed.
“The judge can do whatever they want to do and the companies can do whatever they want to do, but we don’t have to work under these terms and conditions of employment,” Roberts continued.
“If, indeed, these are the terms and conditions of employment that will be existence at these locations, we’re not going to work under them.”
At Friday’s rally, Roberts said they’d also be pushing en masse for passage of the Miners Protection Act on Capitol Hill.
As proposed, the bill would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. With it, the formula for reclamation fees coal mine operators pay each year to the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund would be revised, allowing funds to be transferred to a health benefit plans for retired miners.
The UMWA is also in the final year of a national collective bargaining agreement.
“Our members want to let everyone know that we are fired up, we are united and we are ready to do what it takes to meet all these challenges and prevail,” Roberts said.
The UMWA Solidarity March and Rally was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Friday at the Greene County, Pennsylvania Airport and travel more than a mile along Route 21 to the Greene County Fairgrounds for a rally which was set to wrap up by 2 p.m.
In addition to Roberts, though scheduled to speak included Daniel Kane, UMWA international secretary-treasurer; Terrence Melvin, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and Warren Fairley, vice president of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.