Source: ucommblog

July 30, 2021

Miners from Alabama rallied outside BlackRock in Manhattan calling for an end to the months long strike

Since April 1, miners at the Warrior Met Mines in Alabama have been on strike. The workers say they walked out after management refused to reach a fair contract that reduced the long hours that they were working, which often meant working 80 hour weeks including on weekends, and the low pay they were receiving.

With contract negotiations stalled, about 500 miners from Alabama and supporters from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio jumped on buses and headed to New York on Wednesday to pressure Warrior Met’s largest shareholder, Blackrock, to negotiate a contract now. They were joined outside of BlackRock by members of the New York City labor movement. Some of New York’s largest unions including UWUA 1-2, IATSE, AFA-CWA, and RWDSU Local 338 could be seen in the crowd supporting the miners from Alabama and calling on BlackRock to negotiate with the union. They were also joined by Hollywood Actress and political activist Susan Sarandon.

“I know what it’s like to be a union person, to struggle for what is right, for what’s owed to you,” Sarandon told a crowd. “I stand by you one day longer, one day stronger. And I’ll use my voice, however little it is, to try to tell people around the world and the United States that aren’t aware of what you guys have been doing.”

As speeches were made explaining the struggle of the workers to provide for their families, outside of one of the largest corporations in America, striking miners set up a picket line at the entrance to the investment firm.

“Warrior Met is the creation of a shadowy network of New York hedge funds and investment banks,” said UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts. “The workers gave up more than $1.1 billion in wages, health care benefits, pensions, and more to allow Warrior Met to emerge from bankruptcy five years ago. The company has enjoyed revenue in excess of $3.4 billion in that time. But it does not want to recognize the sacrifices these workers made to allow it to exist in the first place. All those billions came up to New York to fatten the bank accounts of the already-rich,” Roberts said. “BlackRock is the largest shareholder of Warrior Met stock. We are simply following the money, and demanding that those who created that wealth get their fair share of it.”

While the offices of BlackRock on the Midtown offices are far from the mines of Alabama, the striking workers are trying to bring their struggle and their story to money guys that are financing Warrior Met and who see the mines as just a line item on a profit and loss statement. Earlier in the strike, 14 miners made the trip to New York to hold a more toned-down rally and to gain support from the labor unions in the Country’s most union-friendly city.

About 1,100 miners have been out on strike in Alabama since the beginning of April. The strike has become increasingly violent with reports of multiple people being hit by cars driven by scabs over the past few weeks and months. According to Haeden Wright, the President of the local’s auxiliary group said that there have been at least four incidents of violence including a scab who almost hit one of the worker’s wife’s after he decided to barrel into the crowd of strikers. The strikers were not blocking the road, but were in the section that the police had blocked off for the strikers to protest in.

Unlike other high profile job actions like the Frito Lays strike in Kansas and the union vote at Amazon in Bessemer Alabama, the Warrior Met workers have received almost no media attention outside of Alabama and union news publications like UCOMM Blog. The union hopes that by bringing their fight to the financial and media capital of the United States that they will be able to get their message out about the greedy actions that Warrior Met and Black Rock have taken part in to deprive these 1,100 families of a paycheck for the last few months.

Written by: Kris LaGrange

Source: Coalzoom.com

July 27, 2021

More than 1,000 members of the United Mine Workers of America are planning to once again carry their ongoing strike against Alabama’s Warrior Met Coal to New York City.

Members are planning to picket the Manhattan offices of BlackRock, an investment management corporation that is the world’s largest asset manager, Wednesday morning until noon.

The union says BlackRock is the largest shareholder in Warrior Met Coal, the Alabama company the UMWA has been on strike against since April 1.

Union members and allies from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, as well as New York, are planning the show of solidarity as the strike looks to stretch into its fifth month. About 1,100 miners have been striking for better pay and benefits.

The current 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 in pay, benefits, holidays, overtime and in other areas to keep the company going and get it out of bankruptcy – concessions they say total more than $1.1 billion.

Warrior Met produces coal used in steel production in Asia, Europe and South America.

UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said the union’s demonstration this week is aimed at the companies supporting Warrior Met.

“We’re in New York City because we are simply following the money, and demanding that those who created that wealth, the miners, get their fair share of it,” Roberts said.

Written by: William Thornton

Source: Tuscaloosa Thread

July 12, 2021

Picture this: you’re driving in the Alabama heat with your two-month-old child. It’s late; you’re tired, and you’re ready to get back home when you have the sinking realization that you car is about to run out of gas.

Local resident Lacy Brown found herself in this exact situation.

The young mother was driving along County Road 99 near Brookwood with her two-month-old sitting in the back. Her car slowed to a stop when she realized that her car was out of gas and she had no way to call for help, as he phone was out of service.

At least 20 cars passed by her, and no one slowed down to offer her assistance. Brown said she’d lost hope until she was approached by a car full of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) miners on their way home from the picket line.

Brown’s car had not stopped too far from the Warrior Met Coal plant where hundreds of miners are still on strike alleging unfair labor practices.

The miners drove into town to get a can of gas and returned to fill Brown’s tank. She said she offered them money for their help, but they all refused.

Brown took to social media Thursday to express her gratitude toward her good Samaritans. She said she didn’t know any of the miners that stopped to help.

“I’m tired of the name calling and shaming of these men,” Brown said in a Facebook post. “They are good folks that just want to be treated and compensated fairly at their dangerous job. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover and/or go off other people’s opinions.”

Over 1,100 miners at Warrior Met began a strike on April 1 of this year, and there is no sign of an end anytime soon. Warrior Met Coal has offered contract changes to the miners; however, no agreement has been met. The miners have also faced alleged vehicular assault by non-union workers while at the picket line.

Written by: Noah Lueker

Source: LaborPress.org

June 23, 2021

NEW YORK, N.Y.—You take a six-dollar pay cut and what do you get? Five years older and no respect for the sacrifices you made to get your employer out of bankruptcy, say the striking Alabama coal miners who protested outside the Manhattan offices of three hedge funds on June 22.

“They told us, since we bailed them out, they would take care of us,” says Brian Kelly, president of United Mine Workers of America Local 2245, one of more than 1,000 miners who’ve been on strike at two mines in Brookwood, Alabama, since April 1. But instead, he says, “they’re bringing in scabs to work and trying to get rid of the older workforce.”

Warrior Met Coal, which operates the two mines, about 15 miles east of Tuscaloosa, was bought out by a consortium of 20 to 30 hedge funds in 2016 after its previous owner, Jim Walter Resources, filed for bankruptcy, says UMWA spokesperson Phil Smith. Local 2245 then agreed to major concessions to help the company regain solvency: Along with the $6-per-hour pay cut, their health-care costs were increased from a $12 copay to a $1,500 deductible; the union had to negotiate a $25 million Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association plan to continue retirees’ health care; and extra overtime pay for Sundays and holidays was eliminated.

“They’re making us work seven days a week, up to 16 hours,” says Kelly, who’s worked in the Brookwood mine for 25 years, following his father, uncles, and grandfather. “Now we’re forced to work every holiday except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas.”

The company’s current contract offer, instead of restoring the $6 pay cut, is a five-year deal with a $1 an hour increase, with another 50 cents coming in its fourth year, says Kelly.

“This company has prospered,” says Dedrick Gardner, who’s worked in the mine for 13 years. “We worked a whole year during the pandemic. The mine didn’t shut.”

That brought the miners to the offices of three of the hedge funds that own Warrior Met: In the morning, they protested outside BlackRock Fund Advisors, the largest stockholder, holding 13% of the company, according to Smith. In the afternoon, they split into two groups, one at State Street Global Advisors, which owns 11%, and the other at Renaissance Technologies, which owns 4%.

Outside State Street’s Sixth Avenue offices, about 25 miners and supporters from other unions — the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union Local 338 — marched in an oval, chanting “No Contract, No Coal” and “Warrior Met Has No Soul.” Rain cut it short an hour early.

“These hedge funds are among several entities that invested in Warrior Met five years ago when the company emerged from bankruptcy,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said in a statement. “But they insisted on dramatic sacrifices from the workers, to the tune of $1.1 billion. The company has enjoyed revenues amounting to another $3.4 billion since then, much of which flowed into these funds’ accounts. It’s time to share that wealth with the people who created it — the workers.”

Company executives got bonuses of up to $35,000 early this year, according to the UMWA. The Brookwood miners now average about $22 an hour, the union says. Kelly says he makes about $60,000 a year.

Contract talks have made little progress since early April, when the miners rejected a proposed agreement drawn up a few days into the strike by a margin of 1,006 to 45. Smith says he doesn’t expect them to resume until after July 4.

“They really haven’t moved very far from the contract that got voted down,” says Smith. “I don’t think they got the message.”

Aside from pay, union officials say, a main dispute is that management is demanding the power to fire strikers and to give strikebreakers and new hires seniority. Earlier this month, there were at least two incidents where drivers entering the mine site in pickup trucks hit picketers. Warrior Met management responded that it has an injunction that “specifically prohibits picketers from interfering, hindering or obstructing ingress and egress.”

“They want to put the new hires and scab miners to the front of the seniority line,” says Kelly. “I’ve been there 25 years. That’s not going to happen.”

Safety has become a major concern. The foremen the new management brought in, Kelly says, came from West Virginia and Kentucky, and don’t understand the kind of mining they do at Brookwood.

The Alabama mine, which extracts a specialized variety of coal used in making steel, is much deeper than a typical Appalachian “drift mine,” he explains. Its shaft goes down 2,000 feet, and the miners have to travel as much as 10 miles to reach the coal face.

“You can’t walk out if something happens,” he says.

Mining coal at those depths also releases a lot of methane gas, which is toxic, inflammable, and explosive. In the last two years, Kelly says, there have been more “ignitions” — small fires starting from pockets of methane igniting — than he’s seen in his previous 20 years on the job.

“They are building a big potential to have something blow up,” he says.

It’s a peril he knows too well. On September 23, 2001, 13 miners at Brookwood were killed in a methane explosion.

“If you don’t run safe, you won’t run more coal,” Kelly says. “You’ve got to have air to push the dangerous gases out.”

Written by: Steve Wishnia

Source: AL.com

June 22, 2021

About 14 striking Alabama mine workers have taken their case to Wall Street this morning.

Chanting “no contract, no coal,” the miners today launched the latest step in a strike that began April 1 for a new contract with Warrior Met Coal.

United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts and union members plan to protest in front of the Manhattan offices of several hedge funds the union says are the reason the contract negotiations are stalled.

“These are the ones that can be responsible in seeing that we get a decent contract,” UMWA Legislative Director Phil Smith said by phone this morning.

The miners, along with other supporters, plan to protest in front of BlackRock Fund Advisors, State Street Global Advisors, and Renaissance Technologies.

They will also get support from other unions as well. Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Workers Union and Sara Nelson, Association of Flight Attendants president, are scheduled to join them. A spokeswoman for the RWDSU said that Appelbaum will take part as miners participated in demonstrations for the Amazon union drive in Bessemer earlier this year.

More than 1,100 workers at Warrior Met Coal hit the picket lines on April 1, striking for better pay and benefits. Warrior Met produces coal used in steel production in Asia, Europe and South America.

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

Nearly two weeks into the strike, it appeared a settlement had been reached, but that was rejected after the union members “emphatically” voted down the tentative agreement, saying it was not sufficient, according to the United Mine Workers of America. The union contends it made serious concessions in 2016 to keep the company operating, which the new contract did not redress sufficiently.

Smith said morale among union members remains strong, though some members have crossed the picket line.

“They’re holding strong,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of support, auxiliaries feeding families,” he said. “There’s a lot of dedicated people who are determined to see this thing through, no matter what it takes.”

Written by: William Thornton