UMWA Project 50: Volume IV

Preserving Pensions & Health Care

Taking on the Tough Challenges

A growing surge of federal and state environmental laws and regulations affecting coal production. Changing priorities for fuel use by the nation’s utilities to generate electricity. Bankruptcies, and then more bankruptcies. Unfair court decisions threatening retirees’ health care and pensions. More than half of America’s coal mining jobs lost.

The UMWA has been faced with all these significant challenges, and more since the turn of the century. And the fights are far from over.

The Twisted Tale of Patriot Coal

Beginning in 2005, Arch Coal sought to abandon its promises to UMWA members by spinning off its union operations into a company called Magnum Coal and dumping all its retiree liabilities into it. In 2007, then Peabody followed suit by creating Patriot Coal and putting ten percent of its assets and one hundred percent of its retiree liabilities into Patriot. They even bragged about how they cut a billion dollars from their current and future liabilities. In 2008, Patriot and Magnum then merged into one company which, as planned by their former owners, had little chance of survival in a soft coal market.

In 2012, that is exactly what happened. In July of that year, Patriot Coal went into a New York City bankruptcy court and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Active and retired workers were faced with a significant threat to their jobs, their health care and pension.

At this time, more than 22,000 active members, retirees and their dependents received health care benefits from Patriot Coal. “This is Peabody’s and Arch’s attempt to shed themselves of their obligations under the NBCWA and the Coal Act,” said PresidentRoberts to UMWA members at a bankruptcy explanation meeting. The fight to Keep the Promise was on.

Taking the Fight to St. Louis

The first battle the UMWA confronted was moving the bankruptcy case from New York to a location closer to the coalfields. “The people who were affected lived in Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana,” said President Roberts. “They didn’t live anywhere near New York. So we asked the New York judge to move the case.”

Retirees wrote hundreds of letters to the judge, asking her to put the case closer to the coalfields. “If they are going to take away my pension and my health care, I want them to look me in the eye when they do it,” said one.

We prevailed. The case was moved to the federal Bankruptcy Court in St. Louis, which is also where Peabody and Arch have their headquarters. It was a perfect place to march, rally, and protest both companies and any decision the court might make. And on a cold day in January, 2013, the UMWA held the first of more than 18rallies in St. Louis. President Roberts and others were arrested in front of Peabody’s headquarters.

On April 29, 2013, more than 6,000 active and retired coal miners, families and supporters marched down the streets of St. Louis, Missouri

In December, 2013, Patriot Coal emerged from bankruptcy when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in St. Louis ruled the company could cease paying health care benefits for all retirees who retired after 1994. The court ruling also allowed Patriot Coal to eliminate retiree health care for those active employees, who were eligible for benefits. The Court also threw out the existing collective bargaining agreement and set the terms and conditions of work moving forward. But the UMWA said “Not acceptable,” and made it clear to Patriot that any new collective bargaining agreement had to have significant improvements over the Judge’s order. After some months of negotiation, that is exactly what happened.

Peabody and Arch, wanting desperately to end the St. Louis rallies and repair their public image, agreed to provide $400 million to fund a Voluntary Employees Benefit Association (VEBA) which would pay retiree health care going forward. The Promise was kept, for a time.

WHAT WE ARE SEEING HERE IS AN ATTEMPT TO HAND OVER YET MORE MILLIONS TO A HANDFUL OF WALL STREET FINANCIERS AT THE EXPENSE OF WORKING AND RETIRED COAL MINERS. – PRESIDENT ROBERTS

‘KEEP THE PROMISE!’

In 2015, the UMWA was hit once again with the shrapnel of coal company bankruptcies. Patriot Coal, again, Walter Energy and Alpha Natural Resources used federal bankruptcy laws to attempt to slash workers’ wages, eliminate jobs and retiree health and pension benefits, and shred collective bargaining agreements. The 1974 Pension Plan filed a complaint against Peabody and Arch, accusing the companies of evadingtheir obligations to its workers.

On September 8, 2016, more than 10,000 UMWA members, family and supporters were called to action once again. More than 125 buses from 14 states offloaded members into Union Square in Washington, DC. It was time to confront the government and demand action to protect the pensions and health care of active and retired miners and widows once and for all, as stated under the terms of the 1946 Krug-Lewis Agreement.

“It is here at the doorstep of Congress that the decision to uphold the Promise made to miners in 1946 will ultimately be determined!” proclaimed President Roberts. One hundred UMWA members sat down in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue in a display of civil disobedience. All arrestees were removed by the UnitedStates Capitol Police.

In July 2015, the UMWA held its 55th Consecutive Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

125 Years of Struggle and Glory

On January 25, 2015, the UMWA celebrated 125 years since it was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1890. The United Mine Workers of America would later be one of the first to negotiate the eight-hour work day, an end to child labor, and health care and retirement benefits.

In July, 2015, the UMWA held its 55th Consecutive Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Delegates approved constitutional changes that addressed depressed coal prices, bankruptcies, plant closures, job losses and agreed on plans for upcoming contract negotiations. As well as, one percent Selective Strike assessment to be transferred to the General Fund in preparation for the struggles ahead.

On August 17, 2015, more than 1,200 members, families and supporters rallied out front of Patriot Coal’s headquarters in Scott Depot, West Virginia, to protest the company’s plan to abandon its collective bargaining agreement.

A Permanent Health Care Solution

On May 5, 2017, Congress passed legislation that guaranteed lifetime health care benefits to UMWA retirees and their families. The passage of House Resolution 244, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, relieved retirees, widows and dependents of the possibility of having their health care stolen from them. During the final stages of the UMWA’s effort to pass the Miners Protection Act, the membership’s lobbying efforts were crucial to the union’s success.

But we could only pause to celebrate for a short time. The immediate fight to preserve pensions loomed. The health care of more than 22,600 current future retirees had been secured but more than 86,000 beneficiaries and an additional 20,000 future retirees were still at risk of having their pensions severely reduced or eliminated altogether.

Special International Convention

In November, 2017, the UMWA held a Special International Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, as both a celebration of the health care victory and an action to resolve the fight to preserve the 1974 Pension Plan. Resolution one was introduced by International Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus Dan Kane, “The International President shall call a Special International Convention in order to obtain authorization to transfer funds from the Selective Strike Fund to the General Treasury, provided that said transfer will not cause the balance of the Selective Strike Fund to fall below $100 million.” Delegates voted unanimously to adopt all constitutional changes.

IF WE NEVER GAVE UP, IF WE NEVER STOPPED FIGHTING, WE WOULD NEVER LOSE. IT WAS NOT A QUESTION OF ‘IF’ WE WILL WIN, BUT WHEN WE WILL WIN. – PRESIDENT ROBERTS

Columbus, Ohio Rally

In July, 2018, 13,000 UMWA members, families and supporters gathered on the steps of the Ohio State Capitol during a hearing to discuss the country’s pension crisis.

July 12-13, 2018, 13,000 UMWA members, families and members of supporting unions gathered on the steps of the State Capitol in Columbus, Ohio, during a two-day hearing by the Joint Select Committee on Multi-Employer pensions to discuss a solution to America’s Pension Crisis. “We are here to remind Congress that we will not stop fighting for the hardearned pensions American Workers have earned and deserve!”, President Roberts proclaimed to a crowd of over 13,000 on the steps of the Statehouse steps.

United States Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, both from Ohio, spoke at this rally, along with national labor leaders representing Teamsters, Steelworkers, Bakery Workers, Flight Attendants and others.

More than 100,000 UMWA members and supporters rallied, marched and lobbied in cities across the country to urge the U.S. Government to “Keep the Promise!” made to workers and their families.

Promise Made, Promise Kept

On December 20, 2019, in the closing hours of the 116th Congressional session, legislation recognizing the promise made to members of the UMWA by the U.S. Government was codified into law and the struggle to “Keep the Promise” of lifetime health care and pensions made to coal miners on May 29, 1946 ended. “From the very first meetings and rallies in July 2012, through the host of coal company bankruptcies, to callous rulings from the courts, the UMWA membership has remained resilient and fighting,” said President Roberts.

President Roberts was arrested more than any other person during the fight to “Keep the Promise” to miners. 246 members, family members and supporters risked their personal freedom to push the government to honor the commitment made to the nation’s miners. From August 2012 through the passage of the Continuing Resolution in 2019, over 10,000 people stood at the doorstep of the United States Capitol and more than 13,000 in front of the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, to win the battle against corporate bankruptcy and preserve the promise made to thousands of working people.

The Promise has been kept. Now we need to defend it.

On September 8, 2016, more than 10,000 UMWA members, family and supporters filled Union Square in Washington, DC to rally for health care and pensions.

House Committee Advances Bill to Block New Silica Dust Rule

On September 24th President Roberts, Secretary-Treasurer Sanson and UMWA members were on Capitol Hill demanding support for funding the MSHA Silica Standard.

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines on Wednesday, July 10th to advance an appropriations bill for the federal Department of Labor that contains a provision to block any funding to implement the newly-finalized rule to limit miners’ exposure to dangerous silica dust.

The appropriations bill, which outlines how the Department of Labor will allocate its funding for fiscal year 2025, contains one line of text that prohibits the use of any funding for the implementation of the new silica dust rule. Page 52, section 123, states the following: None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to administer, implement or enforce the proposed rule entitled ‘‘Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection’’, published by the Department of Labor in the Federal Register on April 18, 2024.

“This is not the first time some misguided members of Congress have tried to block this life-saving standard from taking effect. It is difficult for me to understand how any member of Congress could possibly be supportive of more miners dying a suffocating death as a result of being forced to breathe silica dust,” said President Roberts.

“The action from House Republicans is a direct attack on the health and safety of coal miners,” Roberts said. “The epidemic of black lung disease is a critical issue that demands immediate action. Congress must do better and reject this dangerous provision and stand up for the rights and health of the nation’s coal miners. It could mean the life or death of someone’s spouse, relative or child.

“Sacrificing the health of miners for any reason is morally reprehensible, and it undermines the principles of fairness and justice that our country stands for,” Roberts said.

Lives Saved With New Silica Dust Standard

Based on MSHA’s 2019 Quarterly Employment Production Industry Profile and the 2019 Quarterly Contractor Employment Production Report, the number of working miner full-time equivalents (FTEs) who will benefit from the new silica rule in the future is estimated to be 184,615 for non-metal mines and 72,768 for coal.

The final rule is expected to result in at least 1,067 avoided deaths and 3,746 avoided cases of silicosis morbidity among the working and retired miner population. MSHA expects full-scale implementation to reduce lifetime excess mortality risk by 9.5 percent and to reduce lifetime excess silicosis morbidity risk by 41.9 percent. Excess mortality risk includes the excess risk of death due to silicosis, NMRD, lung cancer and ESRD.

“Miners with black lung and their families have been fighting for protections from deadly silica dust for years. I hate to say it, but every Republican on the Committee voted to kill funding for the silica rule, putting miners’ lives at risk. Every Democrat supported the silica rule. This action must be reversed,” said Secretary-Treasurer Sanson.

“We have worked tirelessly for far too long to get the new rule implemented, and we cannot let the disgraceful actions of these members of Congress, who never stepped foot in a coal mine, get in our way.” Sanson said. “Miners are facing deadly levels of exposure to silica dust like never before. One in five veteran coal miners in Central Appalachia are now suffering from the most deadly form of black lung; silicosis.

“We will do everything in our power to make sure our nation’s miners are not forgotten and, more importantly, aren’t dying at a pace that is, quite frankly, more rapidly than we’ve seen in decades,” Sanson said.

Studies have shown that miners are contracting the disease earlier and earlier in their careers. One miner was only 34 years old when he was diagnosed with black lung. The disease is entirely preventable but once contracted, it is irreversible.

“Coal is the economy in the Appalachia region, and it’s a big deal, but when mines aren’t safe and silica levels aren’t controlled, you see the human toll it takes on the miner and their families, and it’s devastating,” said MSHA Assistant Secretary Chris Williamson, whose great grandfather had black lung disease.

“I don’t know if folks fully appreciate what the new silica rule means to miners and their families,” Williamson said. “Before the rule, there was not a separate, citable silica standard in coal mining, which meant if there was a silica over exposure, MSHA could not issue a citation, could not give a penalty and could not require the mine operator to take corrective actions.

“Not only is it a big deal, but it will also save lives. It is unconscionable why anyone would not support the new standard. It is shameful that anyone would want to carry the weight of deciding whether a person lives or dies while trying to provide a living for their family,” Williamson said.

At the time the Journal went to print, Congress was preparing to vote to extend current funding levels across the entire government. This appropriations language will be considered in December.

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 is a federal policy blueprint for a radical restructuring of the executive branch authored and published by former Trump administration officials in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, a longstanding conservative think tank that led the opposition to the legislation to protect UMWA retiree’s health care and pensions in 2017 and 2019.

One of the aspects of Project 2025 would directly affect the UMWA and the entire labor movement, by making it illegal for employers to voluntarily recognize unions even if they wanted to.

When a majority of workers sign cards or a petition expressing their willingness to join a union, employers have the option to voluntarily recognize the union instead of requiring a secret ballot election. But Project 2025 states that “Congress should discard card check as the basis of union recognition and mandate the secret ballot exclusively”, which would severely harm union organizing and weaken workers’ collective bargaining power.

The agenda also sets forth a plan allowing employers to take away unions mid-contract. Currently, when a union reaches a collective bargaining agreement, workers are barred from holding a vote to “decertify” the election for up to three years except for limited windows of time. Project 2025 would eliminate the contract bar rule, allowing employers to use union-busting tactics to decertify a union mid-contract.

PROJECT 2025 TARGETS WORKING FAMILIES

• Allows states to gut national overtime and minimum wage laws
• Allows states to ban labor unions
• Allows employers to stop paying overtime
• Repeals labor and wage protections for workers on Federal projects
• Restricts unemployment insurance
• Privatizes unemployment insurance programs
• Creates loopholes that allow businesses to put worker safety at risk
• Eliminates child labor protections
• Increases Medicare Part D prescription drug prices
• Slashes funding for Medicaid
• Eliminates the Affordable Care Act
• Taxes worker benefits

“What Project 25 proposes is unimaginable; banning public sector unions, doing away with civil service protections, putting a stop to overtime pay, gutting child labor laws, banning employers from voluntarily recognizing unions, and the list goes on and on,” said Sanson.

“The prospect of any of these ideas becoming our federal government policy should give everyone pause. Ask yourself if any of these backwards steps would benefit your family, friends, loved ones or your union brothers and sisters. We want to make it clear that we cannot in good conscious support Project 2025. We urge our membership to research and educate yourselves. Ask where the candidates are on Project 2025 before heading out to the polls in November. We need to elect people who are on our side.”

Fighting for Black Lung Benefits for Miners and Families

The National Coalition of Black Lung & Respiratory Disease Clinics, Inc. held its annual Black Lung conference at Pipestem Resort State Park in West Virginia earlier this year. President Roberts was the keynote speaker. He discussed the importance of black lung benefits and spoke kindly of an old friend, Mike South, who died from black lung disease in 2001.

President Roberts was this year’s honored recipient of the Mike South Scholarship Award, an award recognizing a lifetime of service and dedication to the nation’s coal miners. During his speech, he read sections from an article printed in Appalachian Voices highlighting the life of Mike and his wife Kathryn.

The Story of Kathryn and Mike South

By Maggie Allan

When Kathryn South’s husband, Mike South, was 35, his doctor told him that he could no longer work at Armco Steel’s Semet-Solvay mine where he had spent over 11 years as a carpenter. Mike, like generations of mine workers before him, had contracted black lung disease. Kathryn knew right away what this meant for her. “He knew he was not going to be around to support the family, so I knew I had to have a way of keeping myself going,” she says.

The next several decades of her life would be occupied by the arduous legal process to obtain federal black lung benefits, both before and after Mike’s death in 2001. As Mike’s medical expenses and legal fees began to pile up, Kathryn faced a mountain of debt. “I had no assets that would even cover anywhere near that amount of money,” she says.

Black lung benefits cover medical expenses and a modest living stipend when a miner is disabled by the progressive and deadly disease. The process that a miner or his or her dependents must navigate when they file for black lung benefits is expensive, time-consuming and complicated. Historically, the process has shielded many coal companies from responsibility for the health and safety of their workers. Kathryn has fought through this benefits process, and her story illustrates some of the problems embedded in the system.

A Coal Mining Family

Kathryn was born into a coal mining family in Logan County, West Virginia, in 1948. Her father worked at the Holden 22 mine until 1960, when a fire took the lives of 18 miners. In a random and fortunate twist of fate, her father was not present at the time of the fire.

“If he had gone to work that morning when he was supposed to, he would have been inside that mine when it caught on fire and he may not have survived,” Kathryn says. After the disaster, Kathryn’s father was out of work for about nine months before moving the family, including nine children, to Fayette County, where he found work in the Semet-Solvay mine.

Another brother born after the move to Fayette County made Kathryn the eldest of 10. Kathryn half-jokingly describes the family as, “kind of like the Waltons, I guess, but less peaceful. We were more of a fighting group.” Her mother stayed home to care for the children, and her dad raised a vegetable garden between shifts at the mine. Even in a big family living on the modest salary of a miner, she didn’t feel the family’s poverty at the time.

“Most people, if they were poor, they didn’t really realize it at the time because everybody else was more or less in the same boat,” she says. Kathryn met her husband, Mike, at Montgomery High School where they rode the bus together. The pair didn’t start dating until after high school, when Mike entered military service. “He just came by the house one day and sort of asked me out,” Kathryn remembers.

After their wedding in 1969, the couple moved to Indiana, where Mike worked making trailer parts, but they soon decided to come back to Fayette County, where Kathryn’s dad helped Mike get a job in the Semet-Solvay mine. The couple had two daughters, Dusty and Nikki. While Mike worked, Kathryn stayed at home to care for the children, following the example of her own parents.

A Miner and An Artist

“[Mike] had a talent of being able to draw and paint,” Kathryn says. He had an innate talent for art that he cultivated throughout his life, with no formal training. At one point, he had painted a portrait of the principal of a local school. As an expression of gratitude, the principal gave him an art kit, and his self-taught artistic journey was underway.

When he presented a portrait of the president of Armco Steel, his foreman liked the piece so much that he commissioned Mike to make a number of other paintings for the company. “Every day that he went to work, instead of doing the carpentry things he would normally do, he would work on doing these paintings,” Kathryn says. “He kept that up until the day he died,” she adds.

Tenacity in the Face of Black Lung

After Mike finished the paintings and went back to his regular mining work, he started having breathing problems. “They referred him to a lung specialist, so he went to see Dr. Rasmussen in Beckley,” Kathryn says.

Rasmussen was – and to some degree remains, even many years after his passing – famous in the region for his extensive work with the black lung Rasmussen telling Mike that he “would never live to see his children grown,” if he didn’t come out of the mines. After fewer than 12 years on the job, Mike had been diagnosed with black lung disease. Because of the size and severity of the scarring on his lungs, Mike could no longer do manual work, and the reality of his prognosis took a toll on his mental health.

“I’m sure everybody [with black lung] goes through depression and a thought of uselessness,” Kathryn says. “They are lost for a while.”

The disease also affected his ability to make art. Kathryn recalls that, “he even had to change from oils to charcoal drawings because the oils had an odor” that irritated his breathing.

Unable to work, Mike threw himself into activism and community organizing with and on behalf of other miners impacted by the disease. He became the president of the Fayette County chapter of the Black Lung Association, and the National Black Lung Association, and traveled to Washington, D.C., several times, “trying to make everyone aware that black lung is rampant in the coal industry, and that [miners] are kind of like forgotten people,” as Kathryn puts it.

Mike enjoyed “having something to provide to make a difference,” she says. “It was his calling in life. On his trips to Washington, Mike made a big impact on legislators. Here’s this young-looking guy carrying his oxygen tank,” recalls Kathryn. “They’re used to seeing old men in wheelchairs.” To bring in some badly needed income while the couple fought for Mike’s benefits, Kathryn began cleaning houses and working at her brother’s pizza restaurant.

KATHRYN’S HUSBAND’S CASE PROVED THAT YOUNGER MINERS NEED TO BE PROTECTED AS WELL.

Meanwhile, Mike signed up for social security benefits, but the wait for compensation was long.

Kathryn also enrolled in classes at Virginia Tech.

“He was not going to be around to support the family, so I knew I had to have a way of keeping myself going,” she says. After earning a degree in health service administration, Kathryn got a job at Southern Appalachian Labor School, an organization in Beckley, West Virginia, focused on improving the lives of working-class Appalachian people. “I worked a lot with young people that have been thrown away by society, and we sort of gave them a second chance to get back the self-esteem they may have lost,” Kathryn says of her time at the labor school.

Mike’s black lung case was irrefutable, but it still took six years from when Mike first filed his claim in 1984 before he started receiving black lung benefits in 1990. Fortunately for the family, Kathryn’s income from Southern Appalachian Labor School helped pay the bills while Mike’s black lung benefits slogged through the system.

On July 19, 2001, Mike passed away in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit. He had gone through a failed lung transplant, and he had endured radiation treatment based on a misdiagnosis of cancer. Black Lung Association members from throughout the region attended his funeral, where they paid their respects beneath one of Mike’s original paintings, a depiction of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist.

Fighting for Widow’s Benefits

During the time that Mike spent at the hospital in Pittsburgh, Kathryn kept up her work with the Southern Appalachian Labor School remotely, staying on the phone and periodically traveling to conferences. After his death, she was able to stay at her job and maintain her income, but Mike’s medical services left her with an unthinkable financial burden. “I was getting bills from pharmacies in Pittsburgh,” Kathryn says, “and one of them was for $400,000 and some dollars. And that was just one bill!”

For a while, Kathryn struggled to find someone who would take her case. In her view, this was because many attorneys were convinced that they would never earn much money on black lung claims. Eventually, her case was taken up by attorney Mary Natkin and her team of law students at Washington and Lee University’sfree black lung legal clinic in Lexington, Virginia.

With the support of Natkin, her team, and the doctors who had diagnosed and treated Mike, along with “two huge notebooks of medical evidence,” Kathryn was able to prove her claim, and the administrative law judge granted her widow’s benefits, paid out by Armco Steel. The $400,000 pharmacy bill vanished and took the prospect of personal financial ruin along with it.

Stories That Need to be Shared

Kathryn wants her story to be told. “There need to be a lot more stories on the news, everywhere, and actually show people and widows in the mining industries because that’s an industry that is drying up,” she says.

As miners contract black lung at increasingly younger ages, it’s clear that the disease is not going away. Noticing the older age of a lot of people involved in the black lung movement, Kathryn calls on younger miners to join the struggle. “A lot of people think, ‘Well, that’s never going to happen to me,’” Kathryn explains, but her husband’s case proved that younger miners need to be protected as well.

“With a lot of these mines being nonunion, they can more or less get away with a lot of things that they couldn’t get away with before,” she adds. Kathryn criticizes the lack of regional investment in Appalachian people that the coal companies and their distant stockholders display, explaining how these companies “don’t know how [the workers] live or how they survive, or barely survive.”

But she applauds women in the mining community who are showing up in the black lung fight. “Miners have always had to fight for every little thing they ever got, and it seems like there’s more women stepping up,” Kathryn says.

In National Black Lung Association chapters and advocacy organizations, “women are sort of taking the place of their husbands in those positions because their husbands have passed away.”

Remembering her own mother, who worked as a welder for the war effort during World War II, Kathryn recalls a tradition of working women allied with their husbands. “I think women have kind of always been there in every situation.”

Willie Dodson contributed to this article. Article was previously printed in Appalachian Voices.

Lorin E. Kerr Scholarship Winners

The UMWA has announced the winners of the 2022- 2023 Lorin E. Kerr Scholarship. Each of the winners will receive $2,500 this academic year to assist them in meeting their educational goals.

Bailey Sebroski

Bailey Sebroski is the grandchild of Local Union 1473 member Robert A. James. “In college I will be studying to be a doctor, which will require many years of education,” said Bailey. Bailey is from Moundsville, West Virginia, and recently graduated from John Marshall High School.

“In my opinion, the biggest issue facing the organized labor movement today is corporate greed,” Bailey says. “I believe the country needs to put a larger focus on securing protection from job loss.” Bailey plans to attend West Liberty University for pre-med and West Virginia University for her doctorate degree, to continue her passion for medicine, the human body, disease pathology and microbiology.

Chloe Barger

Chloe Barger is the daughter of Local Union 2397 member Brandon Barger. “My father is an electrician and hoistman at Warrior Met Coal, representing District 20,” said Chloe. “Being on strike caused our family some financial hardships.” Chloe is from Vance, Alabama, and is currently a freshman at Auburn University.

Chloe is actively pursuing a major in Psychology and minor in Sociology, and plans to spend her summer semesters working towards a degree in Criminal Justice. “Workers have faced hard and unsafe working conditions, forced overtime and wages that don’t compensate for the high risks jobs expected to be performed,” said Chloe. “Unions lobby for creating safer jobs to help bring positive change to working Americans.”

For more information on the Lorin E. Kerr Scholarship visit our webpage Here!

UMWA’s Project 50 – Volume III

Gaining Strength for Our Future

Editor’s Note:

Keeping the UMWA’s history alive and relevant is a critical part of the union’s service to its members. If we do not know our history, then the harsh realities we overcame in the past cannot serve to guide us today. That is why we remember events like UMWA President Emeritus Richard Trumka elected to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, President Roberts being sworn into office as the 15th UMWA International President, the 1993 and 1998 negotiations with the National Bituminous Wage Operators and the union vowing to organize and grow our membership in 2003.

Telling the brave stories of the men, women and leaders who built our union is not just an exercise in research, it is an opportunity for us to learn how battles were won and what it takes to win them again. This is the third installment of the UMW Journal’s series, Project 50: Struggle and Win.

Demanding Jobs With A Future

Richard Trumka, Cecil Roberts and Jerry Jones were elected on November 10,1992 and vowed to turn up the heat on negotiations with the National Bituminous Wage Operators in early ’93. Trumka called it “the fight of our lives” with the 12 companies represented by the BCOA.

By May 1, 1993, tension was building throughout coalfield communities. The BCOA contract extension was set to expire on May 3 and no agreement was in sight. More than 3,500 UMWA members, labor leaders and supporters from the national Jobs with Justice conference in Pittsburgh rallied outside Consol headquarters. A clear message was sent to the coal operators: We gave you our sweat, we gave you our muscles, we gave you our blood and our lives. Now it’s time to do your part. It’s time for job security, job opportunities, and it’s time for jobs with a future.

With the BCOA still refusing to negotiate a fair contract, the UMWA announced it would call strikes at selected operations of the Ziegler Holding Company, Arch Mineral Corporation and Amax Coal Industries, Inc. The union charged the companies with unfair labor practices. A week later the strike was expanded to include Ashland Coal Operations in West Virginia, adding more than 2,000 additional UMWA members to the strike.

Six days later, the union called on 2,200 UMWA members to strike Pennsylvania and West Virginia mines owned by Consol Energy, Inc, Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company and the C.L.I. Corporation. “We’re in for a long and bitter struggle that could dwarf the Massey or Pittston strikes,” said then Vice President Roberts. “We will do whatever is necessary to achieve a fair and just agreement with the BCOA member companies.”

By June, more than 14,000 UMWA members in seven states were on strike. AMAX, Inc. announced that it had withdrawn from the BCOA to merge with Cyprus Minerals Inc., forming the nation’s second largest coal producer. Negotiations with the newly combined firm with 2,300 UMWA members were now in progress.

CLI Inc, a small company based in Pittsburgh, announced it had also withdrawn from the BCOA to sign an interim agreement with the UMWA. “By now, it should be clear to the BCOA that the UMWA is prepared to do whatever is necessary to come to the bargaining table as equals and negotiate a fair contract that guarantees job security for the most productive mine workers on earth. We have earned those jobs with the profits that we have made for the BCOA companies,” Roberts said.

In September, Labor Secretary Robert Reich appointed William Usery to mediate between the UMWA and member companies of the BCOA, raising hopes throughout the coalfields that the selective strikes would end, and a fair agreement could be negotiated. That did not happen, and Usery formally suspended negotiations on October 22.

After selective strikes and more than a year of bitter contract negotiations, members of the UMWA ratified a contract that guaranteed better wages, pensions and job security.

Roberts Becomes UMWA President

Following Richard Trumka’s election as Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO in 1995, Vice President Cecil Roberts became the President of the union. The UMWA’s constitution provided for the Vice President to automatically succeed the President. Roberts has held the position ever since and is the second longest serving President, as well as the longest serving elected official in our long history.

“I can promise you just a few things; one, that I am now and will always be a Mine Worker first and foremost,” said UMWA President Emeritus Richard Trumka.

“I can promise you that I’ll do anything and everything within my power to make this organization proud of one of its own, and I’ll never forget where I came from. You will have someone who will be fighting for you forever.”

Trumka served as AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer and then President until he passed away suddenly in 2021 at the age of 72 . His last public comments were to the membership of the United Mine Workers in a recorded video just days before his death. The video was in support and solidarity for striking miners and was shown at a rally in Brookwood, Alabama, which was the largest labor rally in Alabama history.

The UMWA held its 51st Constitutional Convention in Miami, Florida before a delegation of more than 800 who set forth a new path for the union going forward. The delegation placed emphasis on organizing, delegating $1,000,000 to an organizing fund from proceeds of the selective strike fund, reducing the strike fund assessment from 2.5 percent to 1.5 percent of gross wages until the fund reached $75,000,000, and reducing it again to 1 percent when it reached $100,000,000.

The delegation also voted to increase participation in union elections, allowing retirees, disabled members and members on active duty in the military to vote by mail in district and international elections. They were also tasked with ensuring viable candidacies for International and District Office by requiring candidates to be nominated by at least 20 percent of the local unions in their jurisdiction.

Going Head-to-Head With the BCOA…Again

Aiming to build on previous success from the 1993 national contract, the UMWA was seeking an early start on negotiations for a contract that was set to expire August 31, 1998. International officers knew some tough challenges were ahead to reach an early agreement for the membership. Those included utility deregulation, a pending global warming treaty, Clean Air Act restriction on sulfur dioxide emissions and cutthroat competition in the coal industry.

“We don’t think the coal companies want a repeat of the 1993 strike. While we always hope for the best, we are well prepared for the worst,” Roberts said.

“The best way to avoid a strike and win a good contract is to start from a position of strength. Our selective strike war chest will soon top $100 million,” Roberts said at the time. “Our solidarity and determination, as shown by our most intense organizing efforts since the 1930’s, remains as strong as it has ever been in the history of our union.”

An early, new contract with the BCOA came on December 16, and for many it was the best present they ever received; the new “20 and out” pension language. That clause allowed miners to retire with 20 years of service at any age, instead of waiting until they turned 55. The new five-year contract with the BCOA was ratified later that month by an historic 3-1 margin.

2003: Reorganization to Ensure Promise is Kept

Delegates to the UMWA’s Special Convention convened in Las Vegas on September 29, 2003, tasked with preparing the union for the next ten years and ensuring it had the resources needed to fight the tough battles ahead. The theme of the convention was “Keep the Promise: Whatever it Takes!!” Sixteen years later, on December 20, 2019, Congress “Kept the Promise” and secured the pensions and health care of the men and women who risked their lives to energize our nation.

“We are committed to taking care of all UMWA members; unemployed, disabled, retired, active, and their dependents. No other union has been able to secure the amount of government funding that we have to continue to serve our members and their families,” Roberts said.

“Our goals remain to ensure the union’s structural autonomy, continued excellence in membership representation and long-term financial viability, but we also need to have the money to ensure Congress keeps its promise and confront any challenges that might arise when we sit back down to bargain with coal operators in 2006.” Roberts said.

“Thanks to structural changes made in 1996, our union is financially sound, but we can’t continue to operate within our existing structure and have the assets needed to fight the battles ahead while also expanding our membership. Unless we change our structure now, we will not have the resources to fight for your future health care and pensions.

“The work we do here in the next few days will determine the fate of our great union. The plan we have presented to you will position our union in a manner that will allow us to continue to fight and win the battles that lie ahead,” said then Secretary-Treasurer Carlo Tarley.

“We have faced many challenges together; the contract re-opener in 1996, the 1998 and 2002 contracts, numerous attacks on the Coal Act, as well as many attempts to roll back coal mine health and safety laws,” Tarley said. “And like no other union, we beat back every challenge that has come our way. But one thing is for sure; no matter how strong or how dedicated we may be, there can be no success without a plan or without proper leadership.”

The delegation voted on each resolution presented, including:

• Combining the International Auditor and International Teller positions,

• Reducing the number of union-wide elected positions from ten to three,

• Combining the District President, District Secretary-Treasurer and International Executive Board member positions into one position titled International Vice President.

• Transferring the processsing and collection of dues to the International Union and re-designating Districts as divisions of the International Union and District Representatives as employees of the International Union.

At the conclusion of the special convention, the delegation, in solidarity with the proposed resolutions, simply said, “We’ve done what we needed to do.”

Greater Numbers, Greater Strength

During this time, organizing wins were taking place across the country. Collective bargaining agreements were reached with Simon Duplex, Inc., in Ohio, Romeo & Sons in Pennsylvania and Somerset County Court in Pennsylvania. Kemmerer City Workers unanimously approved a new agreement that included flexible work schedules, sick leave, vacations and holidays.

The Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Services fought for eight months to win their first UMWA contract. Employees of the city of Gallup, New Mexico voted for UMWA representation and won in a landslide vote. In 1996, more than 1,200 workers at Remington Arms in Ilion, New York voted to join the UMWA.

The organizing training of more than 500 rank-and-file members had paid off. New membership was being gained quickly. Workers at a manufacturing plant in southwest Virginia, an education facility in Alberta, Canada, workers in Rock Springs, Wyoming and clerical workers in southern Illinois all voted and secured representations with the UMWA. The union organized more UMWA members in 1996 on a scale the union hadn’t seen since the days of John L. Lewis.

Organizing was again a primary focus of our most recent UMWA Constitutional Convention in 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The delegation supported and voted that organizing should be made a top priority for the union to grow. As President Roberts said more than 20 years ago, the greater our numbers, the greater our strength.

U.S. Supreme Court Unanimously Voids UMWA Fines

After the bitter 9-month strike against Pittson Coal Company was settled on January 1, 1990, Pittston agreed to join with the UMWA and asked the judge to drop $64 million in fines. Judge Donald McGlothlin agreed to drop the $12 million that was earmarked for the company but refused to eliminate the balance of $52 million, which was to be paid to the state and two counties in southwest Virginia.

A Virginia Court of Appeals later threw out the fines, but the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated them in order to maintain “the dignity of the law and public respect for the judiciary.” The UMWA took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1993, the federal Justice Department asked the high court to uphold the fines, arguing that reversing McGlothlin would hinder the authority of federalagencies. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the judge on June 30, 1994, marking a tremendous victory for the UMWA.

New Silica Rule Funding Challenged

A DIRECT ATTACK ON THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF COAL MINERS

The U.S. House Appropriations committee voted on July 10, along party lines, to advance a bill that would defund the Department of Labor’s efforts to enforce the new silica rule. The bill, which directs funding for the DOL and MSHA, explicitly states that no money can be used to enforce the silica rule limiting allowable levels of silica dust in mines.

Republican-controlled U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2025 funding bill in a 31-25 vote, setting up a vote on the appropriations package by the full House.

PRESIDENT ROBERTS SPEAKS AT A PRESS CONFERENCE FOR THE PROPOSED SILICA RULE AT UMWA’S DISTRICT 2 OFFICE ON APRIL 16, 2024, IN UNIONTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.
Photo Credit: Department of Labor
Shawn T Moore

“This is an insult to the coal miners who have risked their lives and their long-term health to power our factories and heat our homes,“ said Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). “I am going to make damn sure we continue this funding so that we may keep our promise to miners suffering from black lung disease.

“MSHA’s silica standard was put into place to reduce the amount of deadly silica dust in mine atmospheres, which is crucial for combating the worsening epidemic of black lung disease. It is difficult to understand how certain members of Congress could possibly be supportive of more miners dying a suffocating death as a result of being forced to breathe silica dust,” said President Roberts.

“The actions of those in Congress who support defunding for the new silica rule is a direct attack on the health and safety of coal miners,” Roberts said. “The epidemic of black lung disease is a critical issue that demands immediate action. The union urges all members of Congress to reject this dangerous provision and stand up for the health and safety of our nation’s coal miners.”

“Miners with black lung disease have been fighting for protections from deadly silica dust for decades. The union is grateful MSHA finally took action formulating the new silica standard,” said Secretary-Treasurer Sanson.

“It is disturbing, to say the least, that a handful of politicians, who are supposed to be for the people, have taken actions that are a slap in the face to every coal miner in our nation,” Sanson said. “If this policy becomes law, it will put thousands of miners at even greater risk. Congress needs to do better, and our miners deserve better.”

Department of Labor Issues Final Rule to Reduce Silica Dust Exposure

Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su AnnouncesNew Silica Standard at UMWA’s District 2 Office

Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su addressed spectators on April 16th at UMWA’s District 2 office in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.

On April 16, 2024, the UMWA hosted a Labor Silica Rule Kickoff Event at the District 2 Office in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The final rule significantly reduces respirable crystalline silica exposures and improves the early detection of related diseases, a rule the UMWA has been advocating for years to implement.

The final rule lowers the permissible exposure limit of respirable crystalline silica to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a full-shift exposure, calculated as an eight-hour, time-weighted average. If a miner’s exposure exceeds the limit, the final rule requires mine operators to take immediate corrective actions to come into compliance.

Among Su’s first words in front of a packed audience included, “Today, we’re making it clear that no job should be a death sentence, and every worker has the right to come home healthy at the end of the day. The final rule brings the permissible exposure limit for miners in line with the limit for workers in other industries and requires metal and nonmetal mine operators to provide periodic health exams at absolutely no cost tothe miners or their families. We are strengthening respiratory protection standards for miners against all airborne hazards, not just silica dust.

“Since I came to the Department of Labor, I have asked my team to unleash their full power to protect working people, to use all the tools we have, not just to conduct inspections and issue citations but to keep workers truly safe and make sure workers are heard. Today, we are doing just that,” Su said.

Taking the podium next was MSHA Assistant Secretary Chris Williamson, who followed up on Su’s remarks. “This rule reducing miners’ exposures to toxic silica dust has been a long time in the making, and the nation’s miners deserve its health protections.

“Congress gave MSHA the authority to regulate toxic substances to protect miners from health hazards and made clear in the Mine Act that miners’ health and safety must always be our top priority and concern. To further advance this directive, MSHA is committed to working together with everyone in the mining community to implement this rule successfully. No miner should ever have to sacrifice their health or lungs to provide for their family,” said Williamson.

Pictured (l-r) USW miner Marshall Cummings, MSHA Assistant Secretary Chris Williamson, President Roberts, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, UMWA Local Union 9909 member Dave Dayton and National Black Lung Association President Gary Hairston.

Other speakers commenting on the final rule were USW Vice President Kevin Mapp, USW miner Marshall Cummings, Dr. David Weissman from NIOSH and President of the National Black Lung Association, Gary Hairston.

“The United Mine Workers of America gives thanks to every agency, doctor, politician and current workers who have fought tirelessly for decades to bring this silica standard to fruition” said Secretary-Treasurer Sanson.

“In central Appalachia one in five coal miners suffer from black lung disease. The inhalation of respirable crystalline silica can, and most often does, cause black lung, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and a myriad of other insidious illnesses. These diseases are irreversible but also preventable. It is our hope that the implementation of the new silica rule will save the lives of hard- working men and women across our nation’s coal mines,” said Sanson.

President Roberts’Remarks on the Rule

“What does this rule do?”, said President Roberts. “It’s not overly complicated. More people will be alive 10 years from now if it wasn’t for what we’ve done fighting for this rule. All we have been fighting for decades now is to try and save people’s lives.”

“Young miners in their 30’s and 40’s are getting lung diseases that are being exacerbated by silica dust. What was thought to be a disease of the past is coming back with a vengeance because miners are cutting more rock than ever before. This is a critical step to keeping miners safe and healthy. Now, our focus shifts to holding mining operators accountable. The UMWA remains steadfast in our efforts to ensure strict adherence to the new legislation within the industry.“This is a critical step to keeping miners safe and healthy, not just day to day, but for their full lifetime. This is a good day for miners. Workers in other industries have long been protected from excessive exposure to silica dust, but miners were not, even though they work in an environment where silica dust is encountered daily. It was a travesty that the government had never taken steps to protect them, but now it finally has,” Roberts said.

MSHA’s final rule will improve the health and safety of U.S. miners significantly. The rule will result in an estimated total of 1,067 lifetime avoided deaths and 3,746 lifetime avoided cases of silica-related illnesses. The rule will take effect for coal mines in April, 2025 and for metal and nonmetal mines in April, 2026, in order to ensure operators have the tools to implement it correctly

Hall of Fame Inductees Donnie Samms and UMWA Honorary Member Rodney Torbic

UMWA Honorary Member Father Torbic, President Roberts and At-Large International Vice President Emeritus Donnie Samms on April 20, 2024, in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

Brother Donnie Samms and UMWA Honorary Member Father Rodney Torbic Inducted into Washington Greene Labor Council Hall of Fame

On April 20, 2024, at a banquet in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, two UMWA greats, in their own right, were inducted into the Washington Greene County Central Labor Council Hall of Fame, At-Large International Vice President Emeritus Donnie Samms and UMWA Honorary Member Reverand Protopresbyter-Stavrophor Rodney Torbic, better known to the UMWA as Father Rodney.

President Roberts presented Brother Donnie’s award with heartfelt words. “I’ve known Donnie for 50 years, and there is no one more deserving of this award than him. He has worked tirelessly for the United Mine Workers and the members of his community. Donnie is not only someone I have worked side by side with for many years, he is a lifelong friend.”

President Roberts and Brother Donnie Samms at the Washington Greene Labor Council Hall of Fame banquet.

With gratitude and emotion, Brother Donnie accepted his award and said, “I didn’t win this award by myself. We have all won this award together. It’s not always an easy job fighting for what’s right for the working class, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I am truly honored and humbled to receive this award.”

International District 2 Vice President Emeritus Ed Yankovich presented Father Rodney’s award. “I am here today to present this award to an honorable and well-deserving individual, Father Rodney Torbic.”

“Father Rodney was first asked to do our prayer at our annual December 6th observance remembering 37 miners who died in the Robena Mine in 1962. After that day, Father Rodney became involved with the United Mine Workers extensively,” Yankovich said.

International District 2 Vice President Emeritus Ed Yankovich and Father Rodney Torbic.

Upon acceptance of his award, Father Rodney said, “The UMWA’s fight for healthcare, pensions, safe work conditions and against the evils of bankruptcy became a part of my life. The disasters in Sago and Upper Big Branch occurred while I was in Carmichaels and deeply affected me.

“My appreciation for miners’ work conditions increased. The fight for fairness, safety, health care and pensions became more important. Unions represent and stand for the dignity of work and the dignity of the worker. Unions lead to a stronger, better and more productive workforce. Workers and their families have peace of mind knowing the security that comes with union representations,” said Father Rodney.

Other inductees included President of the United Food and Commercial Workers Tony Heller and President Gearld McEntee (posthumously) of AFSCME. President Roberts thanked Brother Heller and his union for the generous donations given during the UMWA’s strike in Alabama against Warrior Met Coal and remarked on McEntee’s relentless fight for the working class.

100th Anniversary of Benwood Mine Disaster

BENWOOD MINE DISASTER’S LEGACY LIVES ON AS A TESTAMENT TO THE RESILIENCE AND SPIRIT OF THE MINERS AND THEIR FAMILIES WHO CONTINUE TO FACE THE CHALLENGES OF WORKING IN THE COAL INDUSTRY.

At the conclusion of the bell tolls for the 21 lives lost on the job last year in West Virginia, the ceremony shifted focus to the 119 lives lost 100 years ago on April 28, 1924. UMWA members of Local Union 783 reported for their shift at the Benwood Mine that day,

never expecting they would never see their families again. A devastating explosion rocked the coal mine, sending shockwaves through the tight-knit mining community. Families and loved ones were left grieving. In an instant, lives were changed forever.

The disaster was a stark reminder of the inherent dangers that miners faced daily. The explosion was caused by a build up of methane gas. This further exposed the urgent need for improved safety regulations and enforcement in the coal mining industry.

“I want you to think about this for a minute. The Benwood Mine disaster happened in 1924, a century ago,” said President Roberts. “The first coal mining safety law put in place by the federal government of the United States didn’t come until 1969. That is 45 years after this horrific explosion that took 119 lives.

“Why did it take 45 years for that to happen? Because nothing happens unless we fight for it,” Roberts said. “That’s why it is so important that we remember all of those who have lost their lives on the job because it’s an inherent reminder that if we don’t fight to force the federal government to protect workers, we will be another 50 years down the road wondering what happened to our loved ones.”

UMWA Honorary Member Tom Breiding, an avid supporter during some of the UMWA’s

most recent fights, including the fight for retiree health care and pensions and the strike against Warrior Met Coal in Alabama, performed to close out the ceremony. He sang in memory of those who lost their lives on the job in 2023, the miners of the Benwood disaster, and UMWA organizer Fannie Sellins, who was gunned down by deputies in 1919 while trying to protect miners’ children.

“We have to memorialize. It’s all part of the labor movement. A lot of safety laws were written in blood, and that is why we are still fighting today. That is why we are here,” said Andy Walters, Secretary-Treasurer, West Virginia AFL-CIO, who was the emcee of the ceremony.