Source: West Virginia MetroNews
Date: October 29, 2025
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The torch has been passed in one of the nation’s best known and longest standing labor organizations. Brian Sanson, a native of St. Albans, West Virginia has become the new President of the United Mine Workers of America. Sanson was sworn in as the 16th President of the union at the UMWA Special Convention in St. Louis on Wednesday.
He replaces longtime union head Cecil Roberts, a native of Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Roberts served in the position for 30 years, the second longest in union history.
“You can’t replace a legend, you can only follow them,” said Sanson.
“The first thing he did was had them name me President Emeritus for Life, so I guess I still got some kind of a title,” laughed Roberts soon after Sanson took the reins.
However, the two have a long history and Roberts has long been impressed with Sanson’s leadership ability, business acumen, and his intelligence.
Sanson started in the coal mines in 1995. He soon went to work in the Union’s retraining program in District 17 to help miners who had been laid off train for work in other industries. Roberts hired him to come to Washington and work for the International Union. He was instrumental in the fight to protect pensions and healthcare benefits for union retirees. Roberts even credited Sanson as one of the architects of the plan which eventually protected those benefits permanently.
“The fight that started in ’89 for pensions and healthcare, we continued to win victories through the years until 2019 and we got a final fix, but the fight for pensions and healthcare we won over and over again when everybody said you couldn’t do that, but I think we performed some miracles here,” said Roberts.
“Organizing is the life blood of any union, but I’ll say that maintaining and protecting these retirees’ pensions and healthcare they’ve fought so hard for will always be one of my top priorities. Those folks earned those benefits over a lifetime of service in the nation’s mines and I will never stop fighting to make sure those benefits are protected,” Sanson said.
Roberts said don’t expect him to ride off into the sunset.
“You know I’m not going to go away. I’m going to go home and sleep for three days because I haven’t slept in 30 years. Then I’m going to get up and decide what to do next,” Roberts laughed.
He said he’s been offered a number of opportunities and expected he might land in a position defending Veterans rights and benefits. Roberts served in Vietnam and is a cancer survivor, which he blamed on his exposure to Agent Orange during that time of his life.
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