Archives: News

This is for all News Pages

Electric battery maker, coal union announce WVa labor pact

SOURCE: Washington Post

DATE: May 24, 2021

BY: John Raby

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The energy startup SPARKZ said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the nation’s largest coal miners’ union on a labor-management agreement for its planned electric battery factory in West Virginia.

The company and the United Mine Workers of America will partner to recruit and train dislocated miners to be the factory’s first production workers. In March, the company said it would start construction this year on the plant that will employ at least 350 workers. The factory’s location has yet to be announced.

“SPARKZ is proud to partner with the United Mine Workers of America to help West Virginia workers become part of the new energy economy, while re-engineering the battery supply chain domestically,” SPARKZ founder and CEO Sanjiv Malhotra said in a news release. “This partnership is a symbol of American innovation and American workers literally building our energy future together and fighting to end China’s dominance of advanced batteries.”

West Virginia has lost thousands of jobs in mining and other resource extraction industries in recent years. UMW President Cecil Roberts said the agreement “is a win-win for the laid-off coal miners who will work in this facility, their families and their communities.”

Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said the partnership “is proof that there is an important role” for the union in the nation’s energy transition.

The factory will produce cobalt-free batteries, an effort to bring down the cost of U.S. lithium-ion battery production. The Democratic Republic of Congo has historically been the top producer of cobalt worldwide, with most mines controlled by Chinese companies.

Earlier this month, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced $3.1 billion in funding to U.S. companies that make and recycle lithium-ion batteries.

In the statement, Granholm said her department is “thrilled to support the battery manufacturing industry and labor partners coming together to solve clean energy deployment challenges, like workforce development. Momentum is building as more companies see that partnering with labor is smart business strategy and key to accelerating an equitable clean energy transition.”

SPARKZ, founded in 2019, is in the final stages of site selection, and will be announcing customer partnerships in the coming months. Its first markets will likely be in material-handling vehicles like forklifts, agricultural equipment and energy storage.

Union Plus: Memorial Day Car Events

This Memorial Day, easily shop new and used cars online with the Union Plus Auto Buying Service. Plus, take advantage of your exclusive Union Member benefits:

 

  • Ready to sell your car? Get a cash offer from a local dealer in minutes.
  • $100 rebate on new union-made cars*
  • Remote paperwork and vehicle delivery options available
  • Enjoy up to $2,000 in Auto Repair and Auto Deductible Reimbursements**

 

Call to Action Button/Link:
BUTTON TEXT (if possible): Search Vehicles

BUTTON LINK: https://unionplus.deals/abs

 

Disclaimer:
*If you purchase a new, qualifying union-assembled vehicle, you will receive a check for $100 within 6 to 8 weeks after purchase. (The rebate checks come from Union Plus and not from the dealer). Union Plus receives a monthly report on the sales activity from the program provider to verify that a rebate check should be sent to a member who purchased a qualifying vehicle. This process is automatic, there are no forms to complete. Keep a copy of your Union Plus Auto Buying referral email that can assist in researching your purchase if you think you qualified for a rebate but did not receive a check.
**Some benefits not available in NY or NH. Terms and conditions apply. Auto Deductible Reimbursement is provided by Voyager Indemnity Insurance Company, an Assurant company. See site for details

UMWA APPRECIATES SEN. MANCHIN’S WORK ON BLACK LUNG BENEFITS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAY 13, 2022

UMWA APPRECIATES SEN. MANCHIN’S WORK ON BLACK LUNG BENEFITS

[TRIANGLE, VA.] United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil
E. Roberts issued the following statement today:

“It has been a constant struggle to preserve funding for the benefits that flow from the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund to the victims of this insidious disease. These miners and their widows need to have the security of knowing that these benefits are available to them and that they will be protected.

“The UMWA has been working side-by-side with Senator Manchin for years to strengthen and expand black lung benefits. He has never wavered in his commitment to, first, ensuring that the benefits will be paid; and second, to improve the law to make it less likely future miners will contract this always-fatal disease.

“As negotiations continue for potential legislation that could move in the Congress, we have full confidence that Senator Manchin is working hard to include language that will preserve the Trust Fund and preserve these benefits. We stand ready to assist him and any others in Congress to get this done.”

###

Yearlong strike cost Warrior Met Coal nearly $10 million in first quarter

SOURCE: AL.com
DATE: May 9, 2022
AUTHOR: William Thornton | wthornton@al.com


Warrior Met Coal reported a net income of $146.2 million in the first quarter, powered by a surge in price and demand for metallurgical coal.

At the same time, the company reported almost $10 million in costs associated to the ongoing strike with the United Mine Workers of America, now in its 13th month.

In an earnings report, Warrior Met stated that the price of met coal has increased 220% year-over-year, in part due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $243.8 million in the first quarter, an all-time record quarterly high.

CEO Walt Scheller said it was the company’s third straight quarter of strong profitability, and that Warrior Met is positioned to meet customers’ needs during a volatile economic climate.

“Our ability to leverage our strong operational base allowed us to take advantage of continued record pricing while also continuing to focus on managing expenses and increasing cash flows,” he said in a statement. “Demand for high quality premium coal remains on the upswing, and we are driving toward full operational mode. In addition, the war in Ukraine created a backdrop for further global supply constraints and price volatility, with urgent demand for non-Russian met coal.”

The company reported $6.7 million in expenses directly attributable to the UMWA strike, with additional idle mine expenses of $3 million. According to Warrior Met Coal’s quarterly reports, the company last year incurred $21.4 million in non-recurring expenses directly attributable to the strike for security and other expenses, and $33.9 million in idle mine expenses.

The strike affecting roughly 900 miners in Brookwood began on April 1, 2021, and is believed to be the longest in Alabama history.

Last month, the largest shareholder in Warrior Met Coal called for the company to put an end to the strike, with the investment stewardship team for BlackRock saying “prolonged operational disruptions, such as labor disputes, can have a negative impact on a company’s financial performance and business resilience.”

Last week, Warrior Met also announced it is relaunching the development of its Blue Creek reserves into a new longwall mine, spending approximately $650 to $700 million over the next five years to develop it.

Russia conflict shines bright spotlight on need for better decarbonization strategies

Source: The Hill 

May 3, 2022

By: Cecil E. Roberts, UMWA International President

 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Americans to see our energy choices in a stark new light. A secure energy future for America and its allies has always been essential but its specific requirements were easy to ignore. Now, Russia’s actions have forced a more thoughtful consideration of both our goals and how we go about achieving them.

Many people say now is the time for an energy revolution. We couldn’t agree more. Clean, secure, reliable, abundant and affordable domestic energy is indispensable to America’s security. But what does that require?  How do we get there?

Geographic, economic, technological and political realities all point to one conclusion: A practical clean energy future must be built upon a foundation of demonstrated, commercially competitive technologies for all fuels. While each energy source has its champions and detractors, we need to call upon every energy resource America and its allies have, and use them in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.

Keeping America’s abundant fossil fuels on the grid while providing the necessary policy support to decarbonize is more critical today than ever before as we confront concurrent economic, climate and energy security challenges. Advanced carbon capture technologies can make America’s vast fossil resources a foundation for clean energy security in the United States and globally. These technologies have growing support in Congress as well as the Biden administration.

Some have argued that now is the time to move towards a renewables-only energy system—the sun and wind being “domestic” energy resources. But the technologies (and critical minerals) needed to capture those resources—solar panels, windmills, and batteries—are not usually domestically produced. Going all-renewables would mean exchanging reliance on Russian gas for Chinese-made batteries and solar panels. Making these in America, and developing more of the natural resources they require, will take time, investment, and new policies. We should certainly produce a lot more critical minerals in the U.S. and use more renewables—but that should be just one part of a national strategy for energy security, not the whole.

There’s a better way to move forward. Firm clean power, available at the flip of a switch, is indispensable to affordable decarbonization. American-made advanced carbon capture technologies could allow allies such as Japan, South Korea, and a host of European nations to replace Russian gas with zero-emissions American coal.

Everyone wants a clean and secure energy future for America, but the legislative magic needed to make it happen has been elusive. We cannot let that continue. As we see vividly in Europe today, it takes years and billions of dollars in investments to make major changes in energy systems. If we want to secure America’s energy future, we need a durable federal framework now to guide the massive public and private investments that are required in the coming decades. We need energy policies that can endure past the next election cycle, judicial decision or overseas conflict.

The way to do this is through practical, bipartisan legislation that unites us in a national effort to generate clean energy from all domestic resources. Americans have a common interest in getting this right, and we should not let zero-sum politics stand in the way. Pragmatic proposals exist today, such as a bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives coauthored by two senior members of the Energy & Commerce Committee, David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), which provides the framework we need to advance our energy agenda.

The bipartisan McKinley-Schrader bill would ensure we eliminate virtually all air emissions from America’s electric power plants—while keeping the lights on, electric bills low, and America’s mineworkers and power-sector unions on the job. It would end the perpetual partisan fight over fuels and ensure that we use every clean domestic resource—wind and solar, coal and gas, existing nuclear and advanced reactors. Other members of Congress have sponsored similar proposals, giving reason to hope that support for the McKinley-Schrader framework might grow.

Advanced carbon capture technologies are ready to be used at scale. With the right federal support, America could replace its older coal plants with a new fleet of zero-emissions coal and gas plants that would become a backbone for affordable, reliable, and clean domestic energy going forward.

For 30 years, climate politics have been framed in zero-sum terms, needlessly pitting environmental interests against energy security and reliability. Building a clean and secure energy supply system for America and its allies can be done. It requires moving past yesterday’s arguments and working together for our own good. That’s a cause that should unite all Americans.

The United Mine Workers are ready to put their shoulders to the wheel if Congress will do its part.

 

Workers Memorial Day APRIL 28, 2022

Decades of struggle by working people and our unions have improved working conditions and made jobs safer, but it has not been enough. This year we are coming together to strengthen our rights and protections to ensure everyone can come home safely at the end of a work shift—and without chronic illnesses from toxic exposures at work.

 

 

Click HERE for a copy of the AFL-CIO’s Workers Memorial Day Tool-Kit! 

The Mine Safety Health Administration and the U.S. Department of Labor hosted a roundtable this year to recognize and honor workers who have lost their lives due to preventable workplace injuries or illnesses. UMWA Local Union 9909 Member Jesse Stolzenfels contributed to this discussion. The roundtable will be streaming live, Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. EST and will be viewable below.

 

 

What You Can Do on WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY

There are many ways to recognize Workers Memorial Day:

  • Organize an online campaign to call for stronger safety and health protections
    using our digital toolkit. Demand that elected officials put workers’ well-being over
    corporate interests.
  • Organize an outdoor, socially distanced event at your workplace to stand together
    to protect the fundamental right to a safe job for every worker and hold your
    employer accountable for keeping you safe.
  • Hold a candlelight vigil, memorial service or moment of silence to remember those
    who have died on the job, and highlight job safety problems in your community.
  • Host an event with members of Congress in their districts. Involve injured workers
    and family members who can talk firsthand about the need for strong safety and
    health protections, the ability to speak up against unsafe working conditions,
    and joining together in union to keep workplaces safe. Invite local religious and
    community leaders and other allies to participate in the event.
  • Conduct workshops to train and empower workers to report job safety hazards and
    exercise workplace rights. Invite union members, nonunion workers and community
    allies to participate.
  • Create a new memorial site at a workplace or in a community where workers have
    been killed on the job.
  • Create and share an online photo and storyboard campaign on social media to
    remember workers who have been killed on the job.
  • Invite the press to your Workers Memorial Day events to increase public awareness
    of the dangers working people face on the job.
  • Continue to hold our leaders and employers accountable to provide safe working
    conditions. As a labor movement, we Mourn for the Dead and Fight for the Living on
    April 28, and every day of the year.

Click HERE for a copy of the AFL-CIO’s 2022 Death on the Job report.

 

ONE DAY LONGER. ONE DAY STRONGER. ONE YEAR LATER.

As of April 1, 1,100 Alabama coal mine workers and their families have been on strike for over a year—we can’t forget about them.
Source: The Real News
April 13, 2022
Written by: Kim Kelly
It was supposed to be a terrible day. Thousands of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) members and supporters were scheduled to convene in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, on the morning of April 6, 2022, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the Warrior Met Coal strike. But, much like the coal bosses themselves, the forecast was not cooperating. The weather report, in typical fickle Alabama fashion, had been fluctuating between rain, more rain, and certain waterlogged doom; the union had bought ponchos in bulk to prepare. As UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said before the rally, “A little bad weather isn’t going to slow us down.”

By the time I arrived at Tannehill State Park that morning, I was fully prepared to spend my day stuck in the mud impersonating a drowned rat. I was not surprised to see that the day’s schedule had been moved up in a bid to outrun the rain. The original start time was slated for 11AM, but the rally was already in full swing by 10:30AM. Like all UMWA rallies, this one opened with a prayer, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only person in the crowd hoping (or praying) that the universe would see fit to send us some good luck after all.

Buses were still arriving as speakers took the stage; according to an emailed UMWA press release, at least 1,200 UMWA members and retirees had bused in from Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, and they were joined by union members from across the South. It was a family reunion, with a greater purpose—when the call for solidarity went out, folks listened. They came to pay their respects by the hundreds, traveling across rivers and valleys and up from hills and hollers to be there alongside their afflicted siblings.

I lost count of the various union logos I saw emblazoned on different shirts and hats and flags. There were postal workers, teachers, and public transit workers, retail workers and nonprofit workers, steelworkers and ironworkers, all kinds of retirees, and at least one Writers Guild of America, East, councilperson (me). Birmingham DSA showed out, and a huge delegation of UNITE HERE members rolled up from New Orleans. A squad of organizers with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) drove down from Bessemer, where they and the workers at Amazon’s sprawling warehouse remain embroiled in a fight of their own (as of this writing, 416 challenged ballots and 21 unfair labor practice charges against Amazon have stalled any determinative ruling on the final union election results).

That support has been material as well as physical: “To date, the union has paid $20 million out of the UMWA Strike Fund to help the miners this past year and an additional $2 million has been graciously donated from other unions and thousands of individuals,” Roberts noted in a post-rally press release. “We have received especially generous donations from the United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE-HERE, SMART, the National Nurses Union, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. We have received donations from local and national online fundraising events and have even received donations from workers at Walmart across the country.  Every dime has been given to the miners to support their families.”

As attendees trickled in, I went over to say hello to Danny Whitt, the tall, bearded recording secretary for West Virginia’s storied UMWA Local 1440. We’d first met in historic Matewan, during the Blair Mountain Centennial last year. He greeted me with a smile and told me that he’s hoping I’ll be able to come back down to see them soon. Whitt and his fellow officers in 1440 (as well as many other UMWA retirees) have been working overtime to amplify the story of their ongoing battle over black lung benefits, a now decades-long crusade against a brutal respiratory disease, cadres of penny-pinching coal bosses, and a federal government that seems to have forgotten their struggle. I promised I’d do what I could, then I told him why their fight felt so personal to me. In 2020, my grandfather died after a short and brutal scrap with lung cancer; the official diagnosis was mesothelioma, a rare, aggressive disease caused by exposure to asbestos. He’d spent forty years working in a steel mill, breathing in dust and fibers and god knows what else, and it finally caught up to him right around his 82nd birthday. He was my favorite person.

Whitt, his eyes kind, nodded in recognition. “White lung.”

My heart skipped a beat. I’d never heard that name for it before, but hearing those words instantly deepened my connection with a group of workers with whom I’d already developed such a kinship. While my granddad was breathing in poison in New Jersey, workers from his same generation were choking on dust in underground Appalachian coal mines; as their lungs blackened (and his whitened), garment workers in cotton mills across the country were falling victim to byssinosis—brown lung. A whole rainbow of pain, generations of workers felled by tiny specks of dust and fiber that should never have been there at all, suffocated by deadly debris in the recycled air.

So much of that pain is buried with the generations of workers who bore it, their lives extinguished like so many lamplights even as their descendants head back down into the mines for another 12-hour shift—and another daily gamble with their own health. Those names will never appear in a history book, but the impact that they and their labor has had is incalculable, and the suffering they endured should not be forgotten. Whitt, himself a retired miner and current black lung patient, was only one of a thousand other miners who had shown up that day to support their striking siblings, but every one of those workers’ stories—and lives—has a place in labor history, and in the centuries-old fight against the ravages of capitalism.

 

That history was alive on April 6.

 

The lineup of speakers was stacked with union officials, pastors, and regional leaders. The presidents of the Alabama AFL-CIO, Kentucky AFL-CIO, and Virginia AFL-CIO spoke in support of the strikers; so did American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram, and Anthony Shelton, international president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers Union (BCTGM), who spoke about the support the UMWA had shown his members during their own grueling strike. Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, was a crowd favorite, as usual. Nelson has been one of the strike’s most visible and dedicated supporters—she’s been back down to Alabama as many times as I have to show support and add a little of her patented fire to rally stages. We shared a ride to the rally, and as soon as we arrived, people flocked to her; at one point, I took on the role of unofficial photographer because so many people wanted photos with Sara. During a year-long strike in which mainstream recognition (to say nothing of support) has been hard to find, Nelson’s commitment to showing up for the miners has clearly made an impact. Speaking to the crowd, she drew a direct line between the work her members do 20,000 feet in the air and what the miners do 2,000 feet underground and made a timely point: both breathe recycled air, and that air is only safe because of how hard the unions have fought to make it so.

On the ride over, UMWA International Secretary-Treasurer Brian Sanson had good-naturedly grumbled about having to follow a firecracker like Nelson to the stage. But as I told him then—and will tell you now—the tall, gruff, affable union man has become quite a dynamic public speaker over the past year, and his rhetorical style can be especially electrifying when he’s calling the bosses on their bullshit or castigating do-nothing Republican politicians for abandoning their constituents.

The skies had darkened and the air had grown heavy by the time Cecil Roberts bounded onstage, but, miraculously, save for a few stray drizzles, the promised rain never came. At several points during his speech, the clouds opened up and rays of sunshine illuminated the stage. I’m not a religious person, but that moment almost made a believer out of me.

To watch Cecil Roberts speak is a near-religious experience; his voice rises, falls, and growls with the fervor of an old-time mountain preacher. When he gets fired up—and he’s always just a hair away from getting fired up—you can almost feel the passion of history pouring out of him like light, from his ancestors Bill and Ma Blizzard, who waged war on King Coal during the Battle of Blair Mountain, to the thousands of coal miners he’s fought for and alongside during his long career in labor. Roberts, a former miner himself, came up through the rank and file, and it shows; at one point, as drops had begun to fall, he joked that no one there was afraid of rain since they were so used to getting wet underground. The major concern was making sure that they could get the buses—and hundreds of retirees, some of them unsteady on their feet—out safely. Luckily, the rain took its time getting to McCalla, and the rally went off without a hitch.

It was a really lovely affair, suffused with the familial quality that is so common at UMWA events and bolstered by the appearance of the strikers’ many supporters. I’ve lost count of how many of these rallies I’ve attended by now. My coverage of this story has taken me to McCalla, to New York City—where the miners rallied in front of BlackRock, calling on Warrior Met’s majority shareholders to force the bosses to the table—and to Washington, DC, where I sat in on a Senate hearing held by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren to address the impact of private equity greed on the American working class. Braxton Wright, a striking miner and current Amazon worker, spoke during the hearing, and his testimony was heartfelt and wrenching. When Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Arkansas-born former football coach and current corporate lapdog and insurrectionist, took his turn at the mic, he spoke in favor of the company, parroting anti-worker talking points that might as well have been scribbled by Warrior Met’s own executives. The contrast was jarring. When Tuberville stopped to try to speak with Braxton afterwards, Wright’s wife Haeden hissed, “Don’t you shake his hand!” Chastened, Tuberville and his staff turned tail and slunk out. Through my year of covering this strike from as close to the inside as a South Philly muckraker can get, that was the first and only time I saw an Alabama GOP politician acknowledge the strike—or the coal miners themselves.

I’ve long wondered at how little press the Warrior Met Coal strike has gotten over the past year. While that has thankfully begun to change, it still burns me up that this fascinating, complicated labor story that involves thousands of multiracal, multigender, multigenerational, rural, blue-collar union workers and their families, who all have nuanced and sometimes conflicting social, political, and cultural experiences, has largely been ignored outside of the labor press and the occasional bigger-league article or feature. I’ve done my damnedest to give it as much coverage as I can everywhere I can—from right here on The Real News to Elle Magazine—but that’s been tough too. I’ve spent the past year ping-ponging between Alabama and my little house a few blocks off Broad Street, where I’ve been holed up writing my first book, FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American Labor. Digging through 300 years of working-class history while trying to keep abreast of every minute development in the strike consumed every waking hour and cemented my commitment to this strike and these workers. It’s always been personal, but now the two will forever be entwined in my memory. FIGHT LIKE HELL wouldn’t have been the same without them.

When I turned in the final edits, the strike was in its tenth month, and I’d fervently hoped to end the book with news of their victory. Instead, the strike goes on, and the miners continue to march. My sources have become my friends; Haeden, president of the local UMWA Auxiliary, soon-to-be local Democratic official, and the first person who would consider talking to me on record, is basically my sister. All I want is for my friends to be happy, and healthy, and to win this damn thing. There is no happy ending just yet, or even a messy and unsatisfying one; right now, the only certainty is that it won’t be over until it’s over. (And at this rate, I’m going to have to write a whole new book entirely about the strike, to make sure the real story gets out there).

When I spoke to striking miner Greg Pilkerton after the rally, he wasn’t shy about expressing himself, telling me how badly he just wants to get back to work. A year on the picket line is hard enough without considering the endless roadblocks, sabotage, and malfeasance that Warrior Met has thrown their way, and it’s no wonder that these workers are tired; tired of fighting, tired of working second jobs, tired of worrying about bills, tired of being slandered and smeared by a big money PR firm that their bosses hired. Some of them, like Greg and his wife Amy, have been injured by company-enabled violence; others have cut ties with friends or family members who chose to cross the uncrossable picket line. It’s been incredibly difficult every step of the way, but the vast majority of the strikers are still standing, and they’re not giving up now. “Now, we’re almost more dug in,” Haeden Wright  told me before we met for dinner with some of the other auxiliary members and their striking family members. “At the beginning, they were like, ‘We’re gonna starve them out in a few weeks, in a few months’… Well, none of us are starving.”

The union’s motto—“one day longer, one day stronger”—has become a mantra for the strike, as well as a manifesto. However long the company wants to drag out the strike by refusing to get serious at the bargaining table, these workers are determined to keep holding the line. As Pilkerton told me, “We ain’t going nowhere.”

Unions rally for striking Alabama miners

SOURCE: al.com
DATE: April 6, 2022


Representatives of labor unions from around the country were expected today at Tannehill State Park for a rally in support of striking coal miners with the United Mine Workers of America.

The miners began a strike more than a year ago against Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood. The UMWA organized a caravan today to show support for the miners, who union leadership said last week now number around 900.

Members of the United Auto Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers, Association of Flight Attendants, and Unite Here were expected at the event.

The union hosted a similar rally last August in Brookwood.

The strike began April 1, 2021. The old agreement with the union was negotiated as Warrior Met emerged from the bankruptcy proceedings of the former Walter Energy, which declared bankruptcy in 2016.

Union members say they made numerous concessions at that time in pay, benefits, holidays, overtime and in other areas to keep the company going and get it out of bankruptcy. Those concessions, they say, have not been restored in subsequent offers from the company.

According to Warrior Met Coal’s quarterly reports, the company last year incurred $21.4 million in non-recurring expenses directly attributable to the strike for security and other expenses, and $33.9 million in idle mine expenses.

Written by: William Thornton

Opinion: From Amazon to Warrior Met, unions need government protections

By Sherrod Brown

Democrat Sherrod Brown is the senior senator from Ohio.

 

A year ago, more than a thousand coal miners with the United Mine Workers of America dropped their tools and walked out of the Warrior Met Coal Mine in Brookwood, Ala. Today, their strike continues, making it one of the longest strikes in recent history.

It illuminates the contradictions of the modern labor movement.

In many ways, organized labor has more momentum behind it than it’s had in recent history: President Biden is one of the most pro-union presidents in decades; recent surveys show the highest public support for labor unions in almost 50 years; and several high-profile unionization efforts have found success at companies such as Starbucks, John Deere, Kellogg’s and even Amazon.

On April 1, workers in Staten Island celebrated the first successful unionization effort at an Amazon warehouse. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Yet, union membership remains near historic lows. Organized labor still faces enormous obstacles against massive corporations whose dominance in the economy we haven’t seen since Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency.

And, just as in the Gilded Age, workers often feel like they have no one in government on their side.

In the midst of that era of corporate dominance, it was Roosevelt who first established the public interest in ensuring workers’ voices are heard.

With the help of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and UNUM, his digital platform exploring the intersection of history and current events, I want to revisit a moment in 1902 when the very same union striking today in Alabama helped push Roosevelt to set a new precedent: The federal government has an essential role to play in labor disputes.

And while no one is calling for nationalizing an entire industry today, as Roosevelt threatened then, this moment is an important reminder that our government must work to protect workers’ right to organize for fair pay and safe working conditions.

Warrior Met Coal strike reaches one year mark, possibly longest in Alabama history: ‘We didn’t want to do this’

Source: al.com

March 31, 2022

 

“We didn’t want to do this.”

 

United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts said the words in thinking back on the last year, one day short of the first anniversary of the union’s strike against Warrior Met Coal.

 

It is believed to be the longest strike in Alabama history.

By all accounts, no one saw it lasting this long.

The work stoppage, the first for the Alabama miners in four decades, began April 1, 2021.

Roberts, who has been president of the union for the past 26 years, said today it was the first major strike of his tenure.

Several times over the last 12 months he had thought it was close to ending.

“It should have ended months and months ago,” he said. “In fact, quite frankly, I don’t think there should have been a strike in Alabama.”

Curtis Turner is the president of the Local Union 2427 Central Shop. He worked for 36 years in the mines and, like Roberts, never expected the strike to continue for a year.

“We’ve made this company one of the largest met coal producers and sellers in the U.S., and the company is very profitable,” he said. “I just cannot believe the company has taken this position. In my opinion, it’s just corporate greed.”

The old agreement with the union was negotiated as Warrior Met emerged from the bankruptcy proceedings of the former Walter Energy, which declared bankruptcy in 2016.

Union members say they made numerous concessions at that time in pay, benefits, holidays, overtime and in other areas to keep the company going and get it out of bankruptcy. Those concessions, they say, have not been restored in subsequent offers from the company.

According to the union, miners lost about $6 an hour under the bankruptcy contract, which added up even more when you consider the accumulation of overtime.

“We were basically promised back in 2016 that if we did this contract, that if we made the company viable over the course of that contract, we would go back to whatever everyone else is making and back to the benefit package,” Turner said.

“Then they told us, we don’t think we made those promises.”

In the tentative offer, the company proposed a $1.50 raise over five years, the union says.

“In my opinion, we had no other choice,” Roberts said.

Nearly two weeks into the strike, it appeared a settlement had been reached, but that was rejected after the union members voted down the tentative agreement by 95%, Roberts said.

Warrior Met Coal did not comment for this story.

The company established a website, Warrior Met Coal Facts, to counter what it says are misleading statements in the media by union members.

Warrior Met says it has put forward eight full written proposals for a new contract in the last year and offered a 10% to 12% raise.

Roberts counters by saying the eight proposals are virtually indistinguishable from the tentative agreement that was overwhelming voted down by the union last April.

According to the company, the proposed contract from April 2021 offered reduced deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses on healthcare, a policy that miners wouldn’t be scheduled for seven consecutive days unless the employee agreed, offered additional holidays, and increased the number of unexcused absences allowed.

The union says the strike has cost the company close to $1 billion in lost revenue.

It arrives at that figure based on the price of metallurgical coal, which is used in steel production. Last year, when the strike began, the price fluctuated around $100 per ton. Within the last month, the price soared to more than $400 per ton.

According to Warrior Met Coal’s quarterly reports, the company last year incurred $21.4 million in non-recurring expenses directly attributable to the strike for security and other expenses, and $33.9 million in idle mine expenses.

“While the Company has business continuity plans in place, the strike may still cause disruption to production and shipment activities, and the plans may vary significantly from quarter to quarter for the full year of 2022,” the company warned in its last earnings report in February.

When the strike was initially announced, as many as 1,100 members were said to have been participating. Roberts said the number is closer to 900, and about 15% have gone back to work over the past year.

According to Roberts, the union has provided just under $20 million to its striking members over the last year, including healthcare coverage, and has been able to pay about $1.8 million using contributions from other unions and private individuals. The union could continue to pay out strike benefits for the next four to five years, he said.

“If the company is trying to put us in a position where we couldn’t pay these workers strike benefits, that’s not going to happen,” he said. “They need to rethink that.”

Turner said morale among strikers remains high. Food banks continue to distribute to families, and members rally every week.

“The people are just looking for a decent contract and being able to go back to work,” he said. “They realize they’re sacrificing a lot but its for a better future for them. They’re pretty well pumped. We’re not going anywhere.”

The strike has had its volatile moments.

In October, Circuit Judge James H. Roberts Jr. issued a restraining order against picketing “or other activity” within 300 yards of 12 different locations owned by Warrior Met Coal in Tuscaloosa County, including mines and offices.

This came after the company issued a statement saying the level of violence taking place along the picket line in Tuscaloosa County had “reached a dangerous level.” The company also released video of car and truck windows being smashed that it says happened to workers attempting to cross the picket line.

Last May, nearly a dozen miners were arrested during a protest outside a mine. In June, union members reported at least three instances of violence along picket lines. The union also objected to the use of the Highway Patrol Division of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to escort miners across the picket line.

Just in the last week, the FBI began investigating a suspected attack March 24 using an explosive device to a Warrior Met Coal natural gas pipeline along Hannah Creek Road in eastern Tuscaloosa County. There were no reported injuries. That came after damage to electrical transmission and distribution equipment on the company’s property reported on three occasions last May and June.

The union has denounced such incidents. Roberts said he has “called for non-violence” throughout the strike.

“But our people are dodging cars out on the picket line,” he said. “They’ve had threats made against them by workers inside those facilities. They’ve had guns pulled on them. But they’ve endured all of that.”

Turner said union members continue to station people outside mining locations, honoring the restraining order while continuing a picketing presence.

“We have to carry our people, drop them off, and come back and pick them up,” he said. “Some of these locations are so remote that they don’t have cell phone service. It’s real tough on individuals to participate.”

The union hasn’t just confined its picketing activity to Tuscaloosa County. Last year, miners protested at the Manhattan offices of BlackRock, the largest shareholder in Warrior Met Coal, on three different occasions. At one protest, Roberts was handcuffed, along with five other people, as the union attempted to aim attention at the companies they say are responsible for the conditions that made the strike happen.

By spotlighting the role of private equity firms in business, the strike also gained the attention of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass). Last month, a Brookwood miner and Roberts testified before the Senate Budget Committee.

Roberts said the union remains ready to make a deal to get members back to work.

“Somebody on the other side has got to want a collective bargaining agreement,” Roberts said. “We could find a way to reach an agreement. It’s like dancing with ourselves.”

By William Thornton | wthornton@al.com