FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 5, 2018
[CHARLESTON, W.V.] The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) announced today that it has reserved $360,000 in television advertising in four West Virginia media markets for an independent expenditure effort in support of the re-election of Sen. Joe Manchin.
“There is no stronger voice in the United States Senate on behalf of working and retired coal miners than Joe Manchin,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “He has fought like a lion to preserve our active members’ jobs and our retirees’ health care and pensions. He has stood with us at every turn, and we want our fellow West Virginians to know that we stand with him.”
Roberts noted that Manchin led the charge in the U.S. Senate that resulted in the preservation of health care for 22,600 retired miners, their dependents and widows in 2017. “That was a fight few thought we could win, but we did because we wouldn’t quit and neither would Joe Manchin,” Roberts said. “He knows how to get things done in Washington, and West Virginia needs that.”
“Joe cares about the people who do the work, not just the CEOs at the top,” Roberts said. “He was raised in a West Virginia coal community. He knows how important coal jobs are to those communities. He knows the struggle coal miners went through to free ourselves of the company town, the company store, the company doctor. He knows what it’s like to lose a loved one to a mine disaster, which is why he cares so much about workers’ safety and health on the job.”
“Joe Manchin has earned our support and the support of every working family in West Virginia,” Roberts said. “We are proud to stand with him and look forward to working with him in Washington as we continue our fight to preserve our retirees’ pensions and keep active coal miners on the job.”
The spots will begin in mid-October in the Charleston/Huntington, Beckley/Bluefield,Clarksburg/Morgantown/Fairmont and Wheeling markets.
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