FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 9, 2021
More company violence on the Warrior Met picket line
[BROOKWOOD, AL.] The wife of a striking miner was hit while peacefully and legally walking a picket line at Warrior Met Coal here yesterday in other instance of company-inspired violence as Warrior Met attempts to intimidate strikers to return to work.
“She was obeying the orders of the Sherriff’s Deputy to stay out of the way of vehicles as they were going in and out of the mine,” said United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts, who witnessed the incident. “Without any warning the driver of a Mazda pulled in, swerved toward her and struck her along her back and arm.”
Amy Pinkerton, the woman who was struck, is the wife of Greg Pinkerton, a UMWA Local Union 2245 member who was a victim of another violent incident last month. A truck driven by Warrior Met personnel drove past a picket shack on the side of a road where Pinkerton was sitting, turned around and deliberately drove through the front of the shack and picket location, knocking a fire barrel 30 feet into Pinkerton.
“The deputy saw what happened to her,” Roberts said. “And then did nothing. This was a company foreman who committed this act of violence today. This is an intentional and ongoing pattern of vehicular assault perpetrated by high-level employees of Warrior Met. We need some equal justice from law enforcement here in Alabama.
“I reiterate my call for Warrior Met’s CEO to meet with me as soon as possible so that we can negotiate a fair, reasonable and peaceful end to this strike,” Roberts said. “That is in the company’s best interests, the miners’ best interests and the communities’ best interests. This violence by company personnel has to stop.”
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