TRIANGLE, Va. — The UMWA announced Thursday it ratified new collective bargaining agreements with Contura Energy.
Contura is the company emerging from the Alpha Natural Resources Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
The new four-and-a-half-year CBA was approved by 89 percent of those voting at the Cumberland and Emerald operations in Greene County, Pa., the Power Mountain preparation plant in Nicholas County and the McClure preparation plant in Dickinson County, Va.
“As always happens in bankruptcy situations, Contura Energy and Alpha had orders from the bankruptcy Judge that eliminated the previous contract and stripped away any obligations for these companies to continue paying for pensions and retiree health care,” UMWA President Cecil Roberts said. “We were essentially starting from zero in negotiating these agreements.”
The new agreement with Alpha covers workers at five preparation plants in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky and was approved by 98 percent of those voting.
Only two of those operations, the Bandmill plant and the Litwar plant, are currently operating.
Neither Contura Energy nor Alpha will pay into the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan going forward.
In lieu of the paying for retiree health care, lump-sum payments totaling $28.5 million will be paid to a Voluntary Employee Benefit Association which the UMWA will manage until it runs out.