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Every June 11th, the United Mine Workers of America observe William Davis Miner’s Memorial Day (Davis Day) in honor of Nova Scotian William Davis who was killed when company guards fired into a crowd of striking miners near the town of New Waterford in Nova Scotia, Canada. William Davis was 37 years old at the time of his death.

Davis was a father to nine children with a 10th on the way when he died. He previously worked in  Springhill mine where his older brother Thomas died at the age of 14 in the mine disaster in 1891.

Today marks the 93rd anniversary of his murder which took place at approximately 11:00 AM on June 11, 1925. This year the annual event was held in New Waterford, Nova Scotia with  a memorial service at 10 a.m. at the Calvin United Church on Hudson Street.

Secretary-Treasurer Allen and International District 2  Vice President Yankovich spoke at the event with Canada’s Auditor-Teller Emeritus, Bobby Burchell, MC’ing.

The Men of the Deeps, North America’s only Coal Mining Chorus, was invited to perform throughout the ceremony.  The event also included the placing of the wreaths in Davis Square at the Miner’s Memorial.

 

Source: Williamson Daily News

That’s why Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, encouraged a room of doctors, lawyers and miners Wednesday to get on a bus with him and rally for the nation’s miners.

“If Jesus had stayed in a building somewhere with his disciples and told his disciples, ‘Write some letters and tell people about me and about Christianity because I don’t want to go outside this building because I’m afraid to go outside this building because people hate me and don’t believe what I’m saying’ – no,” Roberts told a full room, kicking off this year’s West Virginia Black Lung Conference at Pipestem Resort State Park.

The three-day conference addresses different facets of black lung disease, or coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, from developments in workers’ compensation to screening for the potentially fatal disease.

Roberts’ speech Wednesday came only a few days after the Government Accountability Office said in a report that the Black Lung Trust Fund could require a government bailout at the end of the year, when the coal tax is to decrease 55 percent. The survey examined different factors that might affect the trust fund, which benefited about 25,700 people in fiscal year 2017.

Even if benefits were completely shut off next year, the fund would still be $6 billion in debt in 2050 if the tax rate declines, said Richard Miller, director of labor policy for Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who requested the GAO study.

There’s no immediate risk of beneficiaries losing benefits, he said, but the cost of inaction is high.

“From an advocacy point of view, our view is that members need to be aware of this deadline coming up, because this is a relatively obscure, in-the-weeds issue and to let them understand what the consequences are and how, I would argue, irresponsible it would be to let the red ink spiral out of control,” he said.

During his speech earlier in the day, Roberts snaked around the banquet hall, urging people to stand up for what’s right.

“None of us are powerful people by ourselves, but I want to dissuade you from the fact that we can’t do something if we stick together,” Roberts said.

It’s the working class, not the millionaires, he said, who have a history of making waves. And the UMW has a history of standing strong to defend its miners, he said.

“People need to get out from in front of the television and say, if they’re going to take my black lung benefits and they’re going to take some of them away from me, I want to be part of a movement that says that isn’t going to happen,” he said. “And if you want to be part of a movement that stands up and fights back … if you want to fight back, this is the place to be, because this is a fighting movement we’ve got right here.”

Written by: Kate Mishkin

Source: National Public Radio

A new government report says that the federal black lung trust fund that helps sick and dying coal miners pay living and medical expenses could incur a $15 billion deficit in the next 30 years. That’s if a congressionally mandated funding cut occurs as planned at the end of the year.

The cut in the funding formula comes as NPR has reported and government researchers have confirmed an epidemic of the most advanced stages of black lung, along with unprecedented clusters of the disease in the central Appalachian states of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.

The report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed the viability of the federal Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which paid out $184 million in benefits in FY 2017 to 25,700 coal miners suffering from the fatal mine dust disease and their dependents.

A tax on coal companies supports the fund, but that tax is set for a 55 percent cut at the end of 2018, even as the fund’s debt exceeds $4.3 billion and demand for benefits is expected to grow.

“You have to address the fact that the serious forms of black lung appear to be increasing and that may put even more strain on the trust fund,” says Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

“The last thing you want to do … is to reduce the revenue,” adds Scott, who requested the GAO report. “That will inevitably … put pressure on the idea that we should reduce the little benefits that they have.”

Miners with certified cases of black lung receive $650 to $1300 a month for living expenses. They also receive medical care directly related to their disease, which averaged $6,980 per miner last year.

“We’re dying off like crazy right now,” says Sheralin Greene, 57, who mined coal underground for 20 years in Harlan County, Ky. Black lung has sapped her ability to walk around her small farm, do chores at home, or even sleep, without paralyzing coughing fits that last 15 minutes or more. She receives payments and medical care from the federal trust fund.

“It’s a terrible disease,” Greene says, as tears glaze her eyes. “It affects your heart. It affects your family, your livelihood and everything.”

At the current rate, the coal tax collects more than enough money to cover miners’ benefits – $450 million in FY 2017. But that wasn’t always the case. The fund had to borrow money to pay for benefits in the past, and that, plus interest on the loans, has put the fund deep in debt.

The only projection in the GAO report that results in zero debt, avoids borrowing more money for the fund decades into the future, and continues to pay benefits, requires a 25 percent spike in the coal tax, instead of cutting it as planned.

Increasing the tax or even leaving the current rate in place would burden the coal industry, says Bruce Watzman, an executive at the National Mining Association.

“The competition among fuels for electric generation is intense and a couple cents a kilowatt hour makes a difference in the fuel source that’s generating the electricity,” Watzman adds.

Watzman favors congressional action that forgives some or all of the fund’s debt. But even with full debt forgiveness, the GAO still projects a deficit of $2.3 billion in 2050.

Forgiving the debt also shifts the costs of the black lung benefits program from coal companies to taxpayers, according to Treasury officials who were consulted by the GAO. They “noted that the costs associated with forgiving Trust Fund interest or debt would be borne by the general taxpayer since Treasury borrows from taxpayers to lend to the Trust Fund as needed,” the report says.

“Coal operators caused this problem, and they are the ones who should be responsible for funding the compensation these workers receive,” says Cecil Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America.

Coal companies buy insurance or self-insure for black lung and are the first held responsible for payment when miners are awarded benefits. But industry bankruptcies and the failure to secure enough insurance had mining companies paying just 25 percent of black lung benefits in FY 2017. The Trust Fund, which kicks in when coal companies can’t pay, paid 64 percent.

The GAO’s projections do not include the recent studies showing record-high rates of Progressive Massive Fibrosis, the advanced stage of black lung, along with an increase in lung transplants due to black lung. A recent study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) noted that lung transplants cost on average $1 million each and the rate of transplants for miners with black lung has tripled.

“It’s not our fault that we got this disease,” says former miner Sheralin Greene. “We did keep the lights on … We were just trying to help America … They better take care of the coal miners.”

Written by: Howard Berkes

The Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans held a public hearing on May 17, this time focusing on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and its funding problems. Dr. Thomas Reeder, the outgoing PBGC Director, was the only witness at the hearing.

The PBGC was established by Congress in the 1970s to act as a backstop if pension plans were to become insolvent. Beneficiaries in plans that do become insolvent are supposed to receive a reduced benefit from the PBGC. Beneficiaries in some plans that have been taken over by the PBGC have seen their pensions cut by as much as 70%, although those are extreme cases.

Reeder testified that the PBGC’s Multiemployer Pension program is significantly underfunded and does not have the resources to survive if large pension funds like the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan or the Teamsters Central States plan would become insolvent and become the responsibility of the PBGC. There are some proposals under consideration by Congress that would provide additional funding to the PBGC, but those proposals alone will not preserve the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan.

“The solution to this crisis can’t be just propping up the PBGC without taking any action to insure the solvency of pension plans like the 1974 Plan,” President Roberts said. “The only way to preserve those plans is to put money into them in the form of direct payments or loans. That is what the Joint Select Committee needs to be concentrating on, not a half-way solution that will lead to cuts in benefits our retirees have earned.”

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

Pension checks are declining, leaving thousands of Ohioans grappling with how to make ends meet as their retirement funds no longer pay the bills.

In a room full of retired laborers at the Teamsters Local 413 union hall on Monday, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the special joint Senate and House committee that he co-chairs is coming up with a plan to fix the dwindling pensions that many such retirees rely on.

Brown reiterated that his proposal, under which the Treasury would sell bonds and make 30-year low-interest loans to the struggling multiemployer pension plans in an attempt to make them financially sound, is not a government bailout.

“This is not a handout,” Brown said to a room of roughly 100 Teamsters. “Everybody in this room gave up wages 20, 30, 40 years ago … You gave up money then to put money aside for the future.”

Now, that money that so many put away is in jeopardy.

The Wall Street and economic collapse in 2007-08 that bankrupted several companies severely diminished some pension funds, affecting more than 1.3 million Americans and roughly 60,000 Ohioans.

“We know what happens if we don’t solve this. A whole lot of you lose a whole lot of pension money that you have earned, that you deserve, and that you were promised,” Brown said.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is the only thing keeping many pensions afloat. It is the arm of the federal government that insures pension plans. Brown said the government, and the retirees, can no longer merely rely on the guarantee. A collapse of the PBGC would jeopardize pensions everywhere and the economy, Brown said.

“I heard the PBGC director say, ‘If we don’t do something, there are serious problems with PBGC overall,’” Brown said. “That’s going to undermine pensions across the board.”

John Fowler, a retired diesel mechanic from Detroit, has seen his pension check slashed from $3,400 to less than $1,000, and he said that if the PBGC collapses, it could shrink further.

“Like everyone else here, I made life changes relying on this pension,” Fowler said. “I never thought that after working so many years, Social Security is going to be the only thing I get because my pension will go down under $100.”

The Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, which Brown co-chairs with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, comprises eight Republicans and eight Democrats. For the proposal to go before the full House and Senate for votes, it needs the approval of five committee members from each party, not just a simple majority. Ohio’s Republican senator, Rob Portman, also serves on the committee.

Brown said a vote on the proposal, titled the Butch Lewis Act, is scheduled after the November election, most likely in early December.

By Owen Daugherty