Archives: News

Source: WVgazettemail

Date: March 18, 2025

Legislation advancing in the West Virginia Legislature to end civil service protections for new hires in some state agencies is yet one more example of how far West Virginia has fallen regarding caring about workers and their rights on the job.

Our state was once a place where all workers were treated with respect. Today, it seems as if the state government can’t move fast enough to drive working families to the bottom of the barrel, stripping away rights won long ago in bloody struggles with coal barons and other out-of-state operatives.

Supporters of House Bill 2008 will say that its provisions ending merit-based civil service protections and the state’s grievance procedure at some agencies will not affect anyone currently working for the state. But people retire every day and new employees are hired to fill those positions. People constantly move to different jobs within state government. Those people will lose the protections long afforded them by state law.

But why? What have they done to have their rights as workers taken away? I have not seen or heard of any example of a worker who abused their position so badly that these protections should be stripped away from an entire group of workers.

And let’s get real here: This is just the beginning. These are but the first group of workers who would be subject to this gutting of basic rights on the job. There will be more in the future. Before long West Virginians will be left with a state workforce without any protections and subject to the political whims of whoever is in charge. That’s a recipe for the long-term destruction of a fair and even-handed approach to providing state services.

The UMWA represents hundreds of West Virginia state employees, and we are proud to do so. We believe they deserve the same rights and respect on the job that any other worker anywhere has a right to expect. We will continue to stand up for them, because we believe going to work for the government should not mean that a worker has to give up basic rights. Nor should it mean that a person must meet some political litmus test to get a job serving all West Virginians.

I recognize the political reality in Charleston these days. This legislation is very likely to become law. But all West Virginians should recognize what it means: The degradation of workers, their families and their communities continues in our state. That’s a legacy none of us should be proud of.

Cecil Roberts is international president of the United Mine Workers of America.

By: Cecil E. Roberts

On March 15, 2025, UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts and Secretary-Treasurer Brian Sanson attended the Willow Grove memorial service outside Nelms, OH. International District 31 Vice President Mike “Biggin” Payton emceed the memorial service before more than a hundred attendees, including family members of the 72 miners killed in the tragedy in 1940.

“We gather here and at other places like it in the coalfields every year so that we can pay our respects to those lost and their families,” President Roberts said. “We will never forget their sacrifice and rededicate ourselves to continuing our fight for safer mines and workplaces. We want no other lives to be lost and no other families to suffer the unending grief of suddenly losing a parent or sibling simply because they went to work that day.”

A committee of UMWA retirees, active members and staff have worked tirelessly for several years to create a proper memorial for them. Work at the site is ongoing. 

Source: MetroNews

Date: March 16, 2025

ARLINGTON, Va. — Longtime UMWA President Cecil Roberts considers the next seven months his “long goodbye.”

Roberts announced last week he would retire from the position he has held since 1995. Prior to his presidency he served as vice president of the union and before that was active in the leadership of UMWA District 17.

“When I walked through those doors in District 17, I was a 30-year-old coal miner right off the shuttle car. It’s pretty hard to go from the shuttle car one day to sitting behind a desk the next day trying to figure out what you’re supposed to do,” laughed Roberts.

However, it was clear from day one for Roberts, his career would be a near constant battle to protect the benefits of the union membership.

“That very day I started a letter was sent to every single person active and retired that their benefits from the health and retirement benefit fund were being cut. I’m standing up in front of crowds trying to explain this. I was thinking what did a shuttle car operator have to do with this? But I realized you’ve got to take responsibility and fix it,” Roberts told MetroNews.

So for the next five decades he, along with many others, fought to preserve benefits. One of the greatest uphill battles was to preserve the retiree pension benefits and healthcare benefits promised in contracts from long ago. Bankruptcy laws created escapes for coal companies responsible for funding the programs, but as the industry changed the revenue to pay for them slowly evaporated. Eventually, it took congressional action to keep the promise.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is nobody lost their healthcare completely because we found ways to continue to provide it until we managed to get up on Capitol Hill. Legislation passed in 2017 and in December 2019 we passed legislation which protected our healthcare and our pensions,” he explained.

While that was his proudest accomplishment, Roberts said his biggest disappointments were two failings which went hand-in-hand.

“Not only was I unable to save the coal industry, no one else was either. Whether they were politicians or presidents who were favorable to the coal industry, it continued on the decline,” Roberts said.

In recent years, the environmental pressures on the industry put Roberts and the union in the odd position of teaming up with coal operators to fight for the survival of the industry. It was a fight with limited success and for Roberts led to his other big disappointment.

“I would love to have been able to organize more people, but it’s really hard to organize in an industry that’s losing people left and right. You go into a mine with 200 people and start passing out cards to organize, the next thing you know that mine is gone,” he said.

The industry transformed during Roberts’ time. When he took his first union position at District 17 there were 200,000 union coal miners. Today, there are around 44,000 union or non-union employed in the coal industry.

Source: MetroNews

Date: March 11, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Longtime United Mine Workers Union President Cecil Roberts has announced his retirement bringing to a close 30-years of leading the labor organization.

Roberts, a native of Cabin Creek, told the UMWA’s International Executive Board on Jan. 16 that he will retire at the close of the International Special Convention that will be held in October in St. Louis.

The union made the announcement in a social media post Tuesday.

“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 cancer free 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.”

After returning home from Vietnam, the fiery Roberts got a job at Carbon Fuel’s No. 31 Mine near Winifrede in eastern Kanawha County. He was elected vice president of UMWA District 17 in 1977. He began serving as UMWA International Vice President in December 1982. He took over for Rich Trumka as president of the union on Oct. 22, 1995.

Written By: Jeff Jenkins