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The new operator of Pennsylvania’s third largest coal mine remains a mystery

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

December 16, 2020

Last week, a mysterious new outfit took over the 40-year-old Cumberland Mine in Greene County.

Few people, including those among the coal mine’s 700-person workforce, know the provenance of their new employer. The name of the company, Iron Senergy Holding LLC, is ringing no bells. It was just formed.

Its team is so fresh that Iron Senergy’s new CFO, Michael Castle, just left his former employer, steel and mining company ArcelorMittal, last week. CEO Justin Thompson and COO Tim Runyan are also ArcelorMittal alumni. Mr. Runyan left the steel company in January for a short stint as head of production for Peabody Energy.

The newly formed venture has kept its leadership secret, redacting officers’ names in Contura’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and providing no contact information.

Mr. Castle, reached this week, said Iron’s management team wanted to first sit down with the union that represents its miners and Cumberland’s large suppliers before anyone else, but “COVID issues have kind of put the skids on that for a couple of weeks.”

They plan to reach out to those stakeholders this week, he said.

Chuck Knisell is eager for the contact. As District 2 Vice President of United Mine Workers of America, he said so far the union had received one e-mail from Iron’s legal counsel saying the new company will take over the labor agreement “as is” and plans to mine.

That’s unmitigated good news, Mr. Knisell said.

The UMWA has 580 workers at the mine and, he estimated, another 125 workers are in management positions there. The staffing levels are back to where they were three years ago, he said, before Contura Energy, Cumberland’s owner until last week, announced that it wanted to get out of mining thermal coal — the kind of coal burned at power plants — and focus on metallurgical coal used in steelmaking.

Contura’s shareholders leaned on the company to accelerate that strategy and Contura announced earlier this year that, whether it succeeded in finding a buyer for Cumberland or not, it will stop mining there before 2022.

It called off a $60 million project to build a new impoundment for coal waste that would allow it to keep Cumberland open longer — the current pit is nearly full.

If Iron Senergy plans to continue mining past 2022, as it has said, Mr. Knisell said, it will need to invest that money soon as construction would likely take several years.

Mr. Castle said the new owner is absolutely intent on keeping the mine going into the future. “I think there’s a great reserve base there, a great employee base,” he said. “It’s a great property, (and) the intent is to continue mining.”

Iron Senergy, which was formed specifically for the purpose of buying Contura Energy’s Northern Appalachia business, was basically given $50 million to take the Cumberland Mine, the shuttered and now full of water Emerald Mine, and other properties off Contura’s hands. In an announcement about the deal last month, Iron Senergy said it might be interested in exploring solar development on these assets.

Contura, which itself was formed to acquire the best assets from the bankruptcy of Alpha Natural Resources in 2016, said the Iron Senergy deal spared it the current equivalent of $169 million in future environmental reclamation costs.

A history of new owners

The fact that mines switch hands in the coal industry is no great surprise, and this isn’t the first instance of companies paying others to get rid of coal liabilities.

Cumberland, which began producing in the late 1970s, was originally developed by Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel. The mine has been through half a dozen owners since then, although all were bigger companies that had other mines.

Last year, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, Cumberland produced 6.6 million tons of coal — putting it third in Pennsylvania behind two Consol Energy Inc. mines, also in Greene County.

Even with scale, coal is a labor and capital intensive commodity business where struggling companies compete not just against one another, but against natural gas suppliers and other fuels for space on the electric grid. It’s not uncommon for mines to close before their owners have pulled all of the coal from their bellies.

The Cumberland mine has 17 years of remaining life, according to Contura’s latest annual report filed earlier this year. There are still more than 31 million short tons of reserves left in the mine.

But many more millions of tons in untapped deposits were also transferred to Iron Senergy as part of the deal, including a block called the Greene Manor Reserve estimated to hold some 230 million short tons of coal. While Contura listed all of those reserves as best suited for power plants, not steelmaking, Cumberland did sell a small fraction of its production into the metallurgical coal market.

Contura isn’t totally done with Greene County.

According to a statement issued last week, the company said it retained “large block of Freeport seam metallurgical-grade coal reserves, located near the Cumberland and Emerald properties for potential future development.”

Written by: Anya Litvak

Union Plus: 22 Winter Activities You Can Do at Home

Source: Union Plus

Whether you want to stay indoors or venture outside, let’s have a blast this winter! We’ve rounded up a list of winter activities the whole family can enjoy at home.

Have a taste of winter

There’s nothing like a cup of hot cocoa or cider after a snowball fight. Keep your family warm and full with these wintertime staples.

  • Make spiced cider
  • Load up on hot cocoa with whipped cream, marshmallows, and chocolate sauce
  • Make pancakes with hot maple syrup
  • Bake a pie or cookies
  • Simmer a pot of hearty stew or homemade soup
  • Do family fondue night

White Chocolate Fondue Recipe

Try this decadent White Chocolate Fondue recipe from Sandra Lee. You’ll only need a handful of (union-made) ingredients! Choose from pretzels, pound cake, sliced apples, or bananas for dipping.

  • 1 cup heavy cream (Dairy Fresh, Hiland Dairy, Prairie Farms)
  • ½ stick of unsalted butter (Dairy Fresh, Hiland Dairy, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Land O’ Lakes Butter, Prairie Farms)
  • 1 (12 oz.) white chocolate morsels (Hershey’s, Ghirardelli, Nestlé)

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine cream and butter. Bring mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly. Remove pan from heat. Add white morsels. Stir until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Transfer to a fondue pot, chafing dish, or ceramic bowl.

Spend time outdoors

Being outdoors this winter is one of the easiest and safest ways to have fun! Here are some of our top picks for outdoor winter activities.

  • Go sledding down hills
  • Make snow angels
  • Build a snowman or snow fort
  • Have an awesome snowball fight
  • Take a wintry hike
  • Go ice skating
  • Plan a winter scavenger hunt
  • Build a bonfire and make s’mores

Connect with loved ones

Make the most of your time with loved ones with these easy ideas.

  • Setup a living room picnic
  • Eat dinner by candlelight
  • Host a themed movie marathon
  • Plan a virtual game night

Try something new this year

If trying something new this year is on your resolutions list, here are some hobby ideas for you to embark on

  • Take an online cooking class
  • Join a virtual fitness class
  • Host a virtual book club
  • Take up arts and crafts

FORMER REMINGTON WORKERS ARE DEALING WITH A LOT THIS THANKSGIVING SEASON

Source: News Channel 2 

November 19, 2020

 

 

Ilion, N.Y. – Cars lined up in Ilion Thursday morning to have a turkey and some trimmings put into their trunk or backseat to help them have a happier Thanksgiving this year.

This turkey giveaway, put on by CNY Labor Council, was specifically for United Mine Workers Local 717 union members, former Remington workers who lost their jobs last month when Remington closed its doors due to bankruptcy.

When you couple COVID with Remington closing its doors, this Thanksgiving for the nearly 600 former Remington workers is going to be a rough one, but their hope is that the new company, Roundhill Group, which purchased Remington’s Ilion assets, will open the doors back up soon, and hire many of them back, and then next year, they won’t be waiting in a line for a turkey.

United Mine Workers Local 717 President Jeff Madison says he would like to see as many of the nearly 600 workers let go hired by Roundhill Group, “I’m hoping that they talk to the union again. I’m hoping that they want the union back in there and then it would go by seniority and they would hire the senior people first, then go all the way down to the bottom. I heard 400 to 450 people. I’m hoping there will be more, I’m hoping that everyone will get to come back.”

Many of the workers are out thousands of dollars in severance pay and unused vacation that they have not been paid for by Remington after it went bankrupt, something the workers, including Brian Thayer who was in line for a turkey, feel they are due under their union contract, “They owe us the money, they also owe us vacation, We’re only asking for what is ours. We’re not asking for any more, just what’s owed to us.”

Rusty Brown, former UMWA Local 717 President, who also lost his job in October says this is a very difficult time for everyone, “Who would’ve ever thought that all of us that work at Remington would be forming this line for free turkeys. I mean times are crazy and we all just want to go back to work.”

No word yet on how soon Roundhill Group will receive its federal firearm license which allow them to open.

Written by: Gary Liberatore

Lawmakers, Union Urge Mine Safety Regulators to Act on Silica Dust

Source: WKMS Murray State’s NPR Station

November 23, 2020

 

A group of Ohio Valley senators says a watchdog agency’s recent report shows that federal regulators must do more to protect coal miners from silica dust, an especially toxic form of dust created when mining equipment cuts into rock layers near coal seams.

In a Monday morning press release, six Democratic senators, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, called the findings in last week’s Inspector General’s report “extremely troubling,” saying the Mine Safety and Health Administration knew what it needed to do to lower miners’ exposure to deadly silica dust.

The senators’ pressure comes after the Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General found that MSHA’s standards for exposure to deadly silica dust were out of date, and that the mine safety agency’s sampling methods were too infrequent to guarantee that miners were protected.

“We are asking that you take immediate action to implement the recommendations contained in the OIG report,” the senators wrote in a jointly issued letter addressed to MSHA head David Zatezelo. “We further ask that you provide us with a thorough description of the measures currently being conducted by the agency to ensure that our brave and patriotic coal miners are shielded from excess exposure to silica dust on the job site.”

Zatezelo, a former mining executive, has been slow to act on a separate standard for silica exposure, and, in a response to the Inspector General’s report included in its appendix, said he could not agree with two of the IG’s three recommendations for improvements.

Silica is a component in the coal dust that is released in the mining process and is a major contributor to the ongoing black lung epidemic in coal country. The shocking surge in black lung cases was first revealed by NPR. Certain coal mining practices and a higher silica content in the rock surrounding Appalachian coal make miners in the region more likely to contract the progressive and deadly disease.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has found that as many as one in five experienced Appalachian coal miners has some form of black lung disease. Traditionally considered an older miner’s disease, a growing number of young miners suffer from black lung, as well.

Also Monday, United Mine Workers of America president Cecil Roberts issued a statement calling the Inspector General’s report quote “right on the money,” and said he looked forward to working with the Biden administration on the workplace protections.

Written by: Sydney Boles

Union Plus: Holiday Giveback Campaign

Source: Union Plus

 

This has been a crazy year.
These extraordinary times call for some extraordinary giving.

Know an extraordinary union member — someone who’s always looking out for everyone else but never for themselves? Well, we’re here to help you give back to those amazing people in a BIG way!

 

 

We’re giving back, BIG

That’s right, we’re giving $1,000 bucks to 100 union members. But we need you to make it happen! Tell us all about an extraordinary union member you know and they’ll be entered to win! There are two ways to submit an entry, so take your pick!

  1. Record a video
  2. Create a one minute video telling us all about an extraordinary union member (even yourself).
  3. Submit your video using the form below, OR
  4. Post the video on your personal Instagram account using the hashtags #UnionPlusGiveAGrand and #Contest
  5. Write all about it
  6. Use the link below for the form to paint us a picture (in 300 words or less) of an extraordinary union member.

To fill out the form visit Union Plus!

Contura found someone willing to take over its Cumberland coal mine

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 12, 2020

Contura Energy Inc. has found someone willing to take over its Greene County Cumberland mine and the reclamation liabilities that go along with it.

Tennessee-based Contura has been under pressure from shareholders to accelerate its exit from thermal coal — the kind burned in power plants. It had already been planning to sell or close Cumberland by the end of 2022 and had canceled a capital project there that would allow the operation to be mined past that date.

On Thursday, however, the company announced that Iron Senergy Holding LLC would get the stock of Contura’s Cumberland operations — an arrangement that avoids involving the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in approving a permit transfer to the new company.

For this, Contura is paying Iron Senergy $50 million — $20 million of it in cash. The rest will go toward Iron Senergy’s reclamation bonds, which are necessary to ensure that environmental damage from the development of the mine is remediated in the event that the operator fails to do so.

It is not clear what kind of entity Iron Senergy is. Nothing public is available about the new company, which was incorporated in Delaware in July. Contura also did not provide details.

According to Contura’s announcement, Iron Senergy “has expressed its intention to continue operating the Cumberland Mine past Contura’s previously announced planned exit at the end of 2022, thereby extending employment opportunities for the Cumberland workforce, providing a continued tax base for the local community, and sustaining business opportunities for Cumberland’s vendors and a reliable fuel supply for customers.”

It also suggested Iron Senergy has an interest in pursuing renewable energy at the site.

There are about 600 people employed at Cumberland.

Contura recently negotiated a new labor agreement with the United Mine Workers of America.

The union put out an optimistic statement on Thursday, saying it hasn’t talked to the would-be new owner yet but believes that the news “breathes new life into the Cumberland mine.”

“We are still learning the full details of this transaction,” the union’s president Cecil Roberts said in the statement. But he assured members that their collective bargaining agreement will remain unchanged.

Contura rose from the ashes of the bankruptcy of Alpha Natural Resources, with many of the old company’s top executives assuming the leadership of the new firm. In the past few years, the company has been trying to focus its operations on metallurgical coal, which is used in steelmaking and fetches a better price than thermal coal.

Contura said the deal with Iron Senergy still needs to clear some hurdles before closing, which it anticipates will happen next month.

“The transaction is subject to a number of conditions to closing, and therefore, there can be no assurances that closing will occur when anticipated, or at all,” the company said in a statement. “The parties are working diligently to address all of these conditions.”

Written by: Anya Litvak

INTERNATIONAL UNION PRESIDENT JOINS REMINGTON WORKERS FOR ILION RALLY

Source:  News Channel 2 

 

 

On Thursday, a powerful voice joined the chorus of Remington Arms workers, rallying to convince the plant’s former owners to give them benefits they say are provided to them in their contract.

“Old Remington shouldn’t be allowed to pack up and get out of town. I submit to you I don’t care where they go. I don’t care where they hide. We’ll be dead after their (expletive)!” shouted United Mine Workers of America International President, Cecil Roberts.

Roberts traveled to Ilion Thursday to join the latest public rally by the UMWA Local 717. If public pressure doesn’t work, union leaders hope the courts will.

“We filed grievances. It’s going to arbitration. We’ve filed charges with the national labor relations board and we’re in court also. One of those entities could force them to do the right thing,” said President Roberts.

Their pleas are to the Remington ‘old guard.’ However, part of that old guard is carried over into Remington’s future, as former CEO, Ken D’Arcy, is being kept on in that role, by current owners, the Round Hill Group.

“The old company is the one that didn’t contractually want to hold up their end..but again… we have the CEO of the old company that’s gonna be the CEO of the new company, so you see where our issues lie, really, I mean it’s gonna be a tough fight. Gonna be a tough fight,” says Local 717 President Jeff Madison.

Remington Arms’ new owner says blame placed on CEO D’Arcy, for the unpaid benefits or Remington’s spiral toward bankruptcy, is misplaced.

“The judge sets the criteria for who gets paid and who doesn’t get paid and the secured creditors being the bank Franklin Templeton and so on, are the first to get paid,” says Richmond Italia, of the Round Hill Group. “He’d only been in the picture for less than a year. The company was well beyond the point where it could be recovered, so I don’t and nobody should hold him responsible for where the company ended up.”

Written by: Joleen Ferris

UMWA remembers Farmington No. 9 miners with virtual ceremony

Source: WV Metro News

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The United Mine Workers of America usually marks the anniversary of the 1968 Farmington No. 9 mine disaster with a ceremony at the memorial in Mannington.

Union members, however, had to recognize the 78 coal miners away from the site because of the coronavirus pandemic. While wreaths were placed at the memorial, the union held a virtual remembrance ceremony on Sunday.

Friday will mark 52 years since the explosion.

“Here we are as the entire country has to deal with the coronavirus,” union President Cecil Roberts said.

The mine explosion led to changes in coal mining, including regular inspections and punishments for violating federal standards.

Secretary-Treasurer Levi Allen said the move from the traditional ceremony should be a chance to educate more people about the changes stemmed from the tragedy.

“We’re going to have to fight to defend every single part of this world from people who want to walk back mine safety and health,” he said.

“Nothing can make us walk backward from remembering the Farmington miners because we are all alive today — those who toil in the mines after the fact — because of the sacrifice they made,” Allen added.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., sent a letter supporting the union’s memorial efforts. Manchin’s uncle, John Gouzd, was one of the victims of the mine explosion.

Written by : MetroNews Staff

Governor Justice issues several executive orders

Source: WSAZ 3 News Channel 

November 13, 2020

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – West Virginia Governor Justice has issued several executive orders during a press conference Friday morning.

Governor Justice says he’s issuing an indoor face covering requirement.

You must wear one at all times in all public indoor places. This does not apply to kids under the age of nine or anyone has trouble breathing or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.

It also doesn’t apply when you are at a restaurant and actively consuming food or drink, or in a room alone.

All businesses will be required to post signs and ensure it’s being followed.

This takes effect Saturday, November 14, 2020 at 12 a.m.

Governor Justice also announced staff members with nursing homes will be tested for COVID-19 twice a week, per an executive order.

Governor Justice also announced all winter sports will be postponed until January 11. This includes wrestling, basketball, and cheerleading. If you’ve already started, you will have to stop.

Governor Justice says fall sports will be allowed to be finished.

However, there will not be any midget leagues or travel ball. Those will be postponed until January 11.

“All youth sports, it does. And I hate it. I hate it like crazy and everything, but at the end of the day we have got to shut this down for a little while,” said Governor Justice.

Governor Justice has also issued another executive order including schools. He says from Thanksgiving to the following Thursday (November 26 – December 3), no one will go to school. This applies to all 55 counties, as well as public and private schools.

This gives students and teachers a seven day period medical experts say will help with family gatherings that will take place during Thanksgiving.

Governor Justice also announced all band festivals are cancelled this spring. All concert band festivals will be cancelled for the rest of the year.

He says, “We’re not Texas. Or we’re not a Florida. We’re not a situation that is out of control right now. But we will be, because we are the oldest and we are the most chronically ill. And we can get there, and our hospital capacities are good, but really and truly we don’t have a major medical complex on every street corner too. “

This is a developing story.

Keep checking the WSAZ App for the latest information.

 

Union leader rallies with former Remington workers in Ilion

Source: Times Telegram

November 12, 2020

ILION — The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) is fighting — and will continue to fight — for the contractual benefits the Remington Outdoor Company owes Remington Arms workers in Ilion.

That was the message UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts delivered Thursday when he spoke to nearly 200 former Remington Arms employees, family members and supporters who gathered in the parking lot in front of Franco’s Pizza in Ilion’s Central Plaza.

The call to action stems from Remington’s decision to lay off 585 workers at the Ilion plant around the end of October, cutting off all their health care and other contractual benefits.

Workers have always had to fight for what they’re owed, he said.

“If you’re prepared to continue this fight, I’ll be with you, I’ll be beside you and I’ll lead this fight,” Roberts said.

He said Congress needs to get the message that the people who run a company into the ground are the ones rewarded, not the ones who provided the labor that made them rich.

“They (the owners) go to the bankruptcy court judge and say, ‘We deserve a bonus for the fine job we’ve done’ and the judge gives it to them,” he said. “That’s not America.”