Archives: Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNE 27, 2018

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

“With today’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME District Council 31, the elitist billionaires who have targeted the rights of American working families got the decision they bought and paid for. They financed this lawsuit; they financed the campaigns of the politicians who confirmed the judges to the Supreme Court who made this decision; and they financed the anti-worker organizations who provide cover for their attacks on worker’s rights.”

“Make no mistake: They view this decision as a big victory in their long-term effort to destroy working families’ power and silence our voices. But I have confidence that in the end, the corporate elitists will fail. American workers understand that their rights are under attack and will respond.”

“The UMWA proudly represents thousands of public employees — Corrections Officers; State, County and Municipal Employees; Police Officers; Deputy Sheriffs; and more. Those workers have sought out UMWA representation because they know their jobs and their lives are better because they are in a union. We prove that to them everyday and this decision will not affect our commitment to them in any way.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNE 4, 2018

[TRIANGLE, VA] A report released today by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that the Black Lung Benefits Program is more than $4 billion dollars in debt, and a 55 percent reduction scheduled at the end of 2018 in the production tax paid by coal companies will cause that deficit to nearly quadruple over the next 30 years.

​“The modest benefits paid to Black Lung victims or their widows are small compensation for the constant pain and suffering caused by this disease,” United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “These workers contracted this always-fatal occupational disease because they went to work in coal mines whose operators did not take the necessary steps to properly protect them.”

​“Miners get black lung by working in a mine where the operator is not adequately controlling respirable dust,” Roberts said. “This happens because the company is not complying with laws and regulations regarding proper ventilation of the mine and/or not following other required health and safety laws and regulations.”

​“Coal operators caused this problem, and they are the ones who should be responsible for funding the compensation these workers receive,” Roberts said. “Letting them off the hook by reducing the amount they are required to pay is not just wrong, it is rewarding bad corporate behavior.”

​Coal companies pay $1.10 per ton of coal mined underground and $0.55 per ton of surface-mined coal into the Black Lung Benefits Program, which is administered by the Department of Labor.  Those amounts were set by law in 1981, but are scheduled to drop at the end of 2018 to $0.50 per ton for coal produced underground and $0.25 for surface-mined coal.

​“Allowing the contribution rate to drop would cause the Black Lung Benefits Program to go $1.85 billion dollars further into debt over the next ten years,” Roberts said. “That money funds small but critically needed benefits that these miners andwidows need to help provide some of the basic necessities of life.”

​“At a time when Black Lung is on the rise, especially among younger miners, Congress should not be even considering allowing the coal industry contribution to be cut,” Roberts said. “Miners are going to need these benefits for decades to come. This is a problem that has been created by the coal industry, there is a system to help the victims of this disease already in place that the coal industry pays for, and I see no reason why we would put the taxpayers on the hook instead.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 24, 2018

[TRIANGLE, VA.] The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) National Council of the Coal Miners Political Action Committee (COMPAC) announced its endorsement of U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine in Virginia’s June 12 primary election.

“From his days as Governor, Tim Kaine has always been a good friend of active and retired miners,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “Over the last several years in the Senate he has been a leader in our efforts to preserve health care and pensions for retired miners and their widows. Tim Kaine has repeatedly demonstrated that he is on our side throughout his career, and we are proud to be on his side in this election.”

The UMWA’s national political arm has endorsed in state primaries across the nation several U.S. Senators and Representatives of both political parties who have supported the union’s years-long fight to preserve the benefits retired coal miners earned.

“Like Tim Kaine, these Members of Congress have continuously supported legislation that fulfills America’s promise to retired coal miners, their dependents and widows,” Roberts said. “We have been very clear throughout this fight that if you are with us, we are with you. This isn’t a partisan issue, and we don’t make endorsements on a partisan basis. This is about doing the right thing for the people who earned a secure retirement. Tim Kaine is doing that, and we are proud to stand with him.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

APRIL 13, 2018

[TRIANGLE, VA.] The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) National Council of the Coal Miners Political Action Committee (COMPAC) announced its endorsement of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and five incumbent Members of Congress in the May 8 Ohio primary election.

“Sherrod Brown has been a leader in our efforts to preserve health care and pensions for retired miners and their widows,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “He has been a strong supporter of our members and their families from the day he took office in Washington. He has repeatedly demonstrated that he is on our side, and we are proud to be on his side in this election.”

The UMWA’s national political arm also endorsed five U.S. House members in the primary who have supported the union’s years-long fight to preserve the benefits retired coal miners earned. They are:

“These Members of Congress have continuously supported legislation that fulfills America’s promise to retired coal miners, their dependents and widows,” Roberts said. “We have been very clear throughout this fight that if you are with us, we are with you. This isn’t a partisan issue, and we don’t make endorsements on a partisan basis. This is about doing the right thing for the people who earned a secure retirement.”

The UMWA Ohio State Council of COMPAC previously endorsed Zack Space for Ohio State Auditor, and State House of Representatives candidates Dan Milleson in the 95^th District and Jack Cera in the 96^th District.

For Immediate Release March 14, 2018

Blue Collar Swing Voters Are the New (Old) Soccer Moms, Workers and Retirees Anxious about Pension Crisis Looking for Congressional Action

Uniontown, Pennsylvania – As political observers across the nation try to parse the results of last night’s special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District for clues to upcoming midterm contests, one issue that clearly stands out is solving the multi-employer pension crisis. PA-18 demonstrates that voters who fear for retirement security will blur partisan lines to support candidates they believe have their backs.

News accounts have documented a sharp division between the winner in the PA-18 contest, Conor Lamb, and his opponent, Rep. Rick Saccone, on addressing the pension crisis. Saccone ducked the issue when asked to address it by reporters, preferring to eat ice cream rather than answer whether he supported the American Miners’ Protection Act. Lamb and his surrogates, including United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil Roberts, by contrast, have made solving the pension crisis a central issue.

“You elect this man to Congress, and you won’t have to lobby him one minute,” said Roberts at a recent campaign rally for Lamb. “He’s for your pensions, he’s for your union, he’s for your health care. This is a ‘yes’ vote.”

In the wake of Lamb’s victory last night, Roberts noted that, “a lot of our members who didn’t vote in the last election or voted for President Trump came out and voted for the one candidate who was clear about standing up for their pensions and their retirement security. They may still agree with the President about a lot of things, but they know that if they lose their pension they will be scrambling just to survive. All the other things any politician is doing or saying fall by the wayside when a person is in survival mode.”

The looming pension crisis is not just a Pennsylvania or a coal miner issue. More than 1.5 million workers and retirees concentrated in key swing states – including Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, West Virginia and Wisconsin – now face the possibility of losing their long-promised pensions due to pending insolvency of multiemployer pension funds. Millions more workers across the country may also lose their pensions without a long-term funding solution.

As part of a budget agreement reached last month, the U.S. House and Senate tasked a bipartisan 16-member select committee with crafting a solution to the funding crisis for stressed multiemployer pensions covering retirees and workers employed in mining, trucking, warehousing, commercial baking and other industries.

“There are tens of thousands of Teamsters and Mine Workers and Bakery and Confectionery workers and Carpenters that will see huge cuts in their pensions, and they start pretty soon,” Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Politico last December. “It’s not just fixing it and getting it done because the economics and the math get worse and worse. It’s because of what it does to families.”

Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) in an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer in February summed it up this way, “Over the past several years, I’ve consistently made clear to my colleagues that there is a looming multiemployer pension crisis in America, and responsible reforms are needed to protect retiree benefits, ensure the solvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and allow participating employers to remain competitive…we must put politics aside and find a workable solution.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MARCH 6, 2018

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

“I congratulate the teachers, school support personnel and other state employees who emerged victorious in their struggle for dignity and respect from West Virginia’s state government today. Their solidarity and unity of purpose has inspired working families throughout our state and across America. Their victory demonstrates once again that when workers stand united, they can never be defeated.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

Joint pension committee now must act to preserve pensions

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

“Now that the members of the Joint Select Committee on Multi-Employer Pensions have been named, it’s time for them to get to work to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of retirees who are in jeopardy do not lose the pensions they spent a lifetime to earn.

“The charge of this Committee is clearly spelled out in the enabling legislation. It is to ‘improve the solvency of multi-employer pension plans and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.’ The American people, and especially the retirees whose pensions are at risk through no fault of their own, have every reason to expect that the Committee will do just that.

“I am encouraged to see that some of the people on both sides of the aisle who have been working on this issue the longest and have the most knowledge of what needs to be done to address this problem have been appointed to this Committee.

“The UMWA stands ready to provide whatever information and assistance the Committee may need as it develops a plan that preserves the pensions our retirees literally put their lives on the line every day to earn.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

UMWA statement regarding Congress’ failure to solve pension crisis

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

“I had hoped that Congressional leadership could come together and take immediate action to put an end to the pension crisis confronting millions of American retirees, including more than 107,000 current and future UMWA retirees, but they did not. Today’s failure to act makes tomorrow’s solution more expensive.

“However, I am encouraged that Congress has established a joint special committee that is charged with coming up with a workable legislative solution to this crisis by the end of November. If they can agree on a path forward, there will be an expedited vote on that solution.

“But that committee cannot properly understand the full scope of this problem sitting in a room on Capitol Hill. I strongly encourage them to hold hearings across America to hear directly from the people whose lives are at stake. Their voices must be part of the committee’s considerations.

“As for the UMWA, we will continue our fight to ensure that the pensions our members earned doing the hard, dangerous work to provide the fuel that has energized America will be paid in full. Their retirement security was promised by the federal government in 1946. Every Congress from that day to this one has kept that moral commitment. I hope and pray that this Congress will not be the first to fail to keep the government’s word.”

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