“LIKE THE GREAT JOHN L. LEWIS SAID MANY YEARS AGO,I DERIVE MY STRENGTH FROM THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. I HAVE BEEN BLESSED AND HONORED TO BE YOUR PRESIDENT OF THE GREATEST UNION IN THE WORLD FOR THE LAST 30 YEARS. MAY GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU.” – CECIL E. ROBERTS
On January 16, 2025, President Roberts announced to the International Executive Board that he would be retiring at the close of the International Special Convention that will be held in October, 2025, in St. Louis, Missouri. Roberts is in his 7th consecutive term as International President of the United Mine Workers of America.
Before taking over the reins from the late President Emeritus Richard L. Trumka on October 22, 1995, he served as UMWA’s International Vice President beginning in December,1982. He is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War and upon his return from Vietnam, he worked at Carbon Fuel’s No. 31 Mine in Winifred, West Virginia. In 1977 he was elected as Vice President of UMWA District 17 by a 2-to-1 margin.
He was the “field general” and key negotiator in the UMWA’s 10-month successful strike against the Pittston Coal Company in 1989. He negotiated dozens of collective bargaining agreements which featured increases in pensions, wages and other terms and conditions of
employment.
After a decade-long fight, he led the fight to secure the health care and pensions of more than 92,000 retired miners with Congressional passage of the Miners Protection Act of 2017, the Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 and the Miners Pension Protection Act of 2020.
In 2022, West Virginia University Medicine named the cardiac wing of its new Children’s Hospital the Cecil E. Roberts, United Mine Workers of America WVU Children’s Heart Wing. Roberts has dedicated his life to workers’ rights, fought tirelessly for black lung benefits and never gave up on ensuring that retirees received the pensions and health care they earned over a lifetime of backbreaking work.
“I am going to retire at the end of the Special Convention. I feel like I’m the luckiest person in the world. It has been 59 years since I was drafted, and I survived Vietnam, returned home and have been able to live for 50 plus years. I contracted cancer because of Vietnam, but I’m cancerfree as of now and am working to remain so. I am a lucky guy,” said Roberts.
“Brian Sanson is going to be your next president. I want everybody to know that I am going to do everything I can to support him, and I’m going to do everything in my power to get him elected when the next elections come around. I will put my name on every piece of material I can in support of him. I suggest that we all ought to do the same.”
Roberts looks forward to spending time with his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren when he retires.
