Archives: Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

July 28, 2017

UMWA mourns miner killed at Reading Anthracite

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

“The hearts and prayers are with the family of Brother Andrew Oxenrider, 28, a member of UMWA Local Union 1686, who was killed on the job at Reading Anthracite Company in Duncott, Schuylkill County, Pa., yesterday.

This is the tenth fatality in the U.S. coal industry this year, two more than in all of last year. Our safety experts are at the mine today, and are participating with the Mine Safety and Health Administration in the investigation of this terrible tragedy.

Andrew was a new miner with a new family. We ask everyone to keep his family in their prayers as they struggle to cope with this terrible tragedy.”

I want to thank all of those who attended the District Conferences we held in June. At each of the seven conferences, with over 3500 members from 207 local unions in attendance from the United States and Canada, the Executive Board’s Resolution to hold a Special Convention on Nov. 3 and 4 was discussed and resolutions were passed unanimously to support the goals of the convention. Delegates to the convention will vote on ensuring the UMWA has the necessary resources to win our fight to secure lifetime pensions for our retirees.

But even though the Special Convention is only a few months away, we have no time to waste. We must act NOW to convince Congress to uphold its promises to our retirees. We need to take every opportunity we can to put pressure on Congress to do their job and keep the promise made to you and your families. That is why dues-paying retirees who currently receive a pension will get a letter from me in the next few weeks to update you on the status of our fight to preserve what you have earned. The letters include a call for action asking retirees to reach out to your Senators and Representatives and let them know that you expect them to keep their promise.

The delivery of these letters will be staggered, with District 12 receiving the letters first, including all of Kentucky. District 2, 20 and 22 and Ohio members will be next to receive their letters and West Virginia and Virginia members will be last to receive this call to action. The reason we are sending these letters in waves is that we need to extend this contact with Congress over several weeks instead of just a few days.  I will follow up with a robocall to these same members with an update on our progress.

Brothers and Sisters, your voices made a huge difference in our fight to secure retiree health care benefits. That is what will win the pension fight as well. I urge you, when you get the letter please make the call to your Senators and Representatives. Together, we will win this fight!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 5, 2017

[TRIANGLE, VA.]  Levi D. Allen was sworn in today as the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International Secretary-Treasurer, replacing Robert J. Scaramozzino. Allen was sworn in by UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts in a ceremony in the Union’s Boardroom.

“This is the highest honor I could ever have expected to receive,” Allen said. “I am blessed to be able to work on behalf of the membership of this great union, and to work beside a tremendous leader like Cecil Roberts. We have many challenges confronting the members of the UMWA right now, and I pledge to them to do my very best to help overcome those challenges and move the union and its membership forward.”

A native of Moundsville, W. Va., Allen, 36, began his coal mining career in 2007, hiring into the McElroy mine (now the Marshall County mine) as a general inside laborer, working primarily at the coal face. After working as a beltman, he earned his electrician’s card and began working as a Mechanic/Electrician throughout the mine.

Allen was active in Local Union 1638 from his first day at work, and became the Local’s Recording Secretary in 2010. He was elected to the Mine Committee in 2012 and as Local Union President in 2014. He was recognized as a rising talent in the UMWA and was hired by President Roberts onto the International Staff in 2015.

“Levi is exceptionally qualified to be the UMWA’s Secretary-Treasurer,” Roberts said. “He is very intelligent and is a fast learner. His time in leadership roles at his local union gave him a strong grounding in how to deal with the day-to-day issues our members face on the job. I have every confidence that he will be a strong partner for me and a powerful advocate for our members in the years to come.”

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine invites coal mine workers, mine operators, and others to provide their comments on using continuous personal dust monitors (CPDMs) in underground mines. Persons can provide input at an information-gathering meeting on Thursday, June 29 in Morgantown, W. Va.

The ongoing study is assessing the effectiveness of monitoring and sampling approaches that are used to guide decisions about controlling coal mine dust and mine worker exposure. The committee conducting the study will hear from representatives of Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) on emerging trends in the CPDM data and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on research findings on the respiratory health of coal mine workers, followed by a public comment session.

The open session of the meeting will be held from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 29 at the Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place, 2 Waterfront Place in Morgantown, W. Va.

For more information on the study, click on this link.

For a copy of the meetings agenda, click here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 22, 2017

 

UMWA mourns loss of miner in Alabama, steps up safety outreach

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

“The entire UMWA family is mourning the loss of our brother miner, Marius Shepherd, 33, a member of UMWA Local Union 2133, who was killed at the Seneca Coal Resources Oak Grove mine in Hueytown, Ala., on Monday. Our hearts and prayers go out to his family and we stand ready to assist them at this terrible time.

“Brother Shepherd died as a result of injuries sustained after leaping from a runaway locomotive underground. Our safety representatives have been on the site since immediately after the incident and are participating in the investigation along with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

“This is the ninth fatality in U.S. coal mines this year, one more than all of last year. All stakeholders in the mining industry – employers, government safety agencies, and workers – need to take steps to stop this deadly trend.

“I note that the Mine Safety and Health Administration has instituted a ‘compliance assistance’ program to address this. The UMWA is not and never has been in favor of so-called ‘compliance assistance’ programs, and this one is no different. MSHA is giving the operators leeway to select who can participate in this program and who cannot. To be effective, MSHA’s program must be training everyone receives. And, despite our 127-year history of dealing with mine safety issues and developing solutions to those issues, MSHA failed to reach out to us at all concerning developing this program.

​ “For our part, the UMWA is preparing to undertake a series of meetings, site visits, and mine inspections at the mines where we represent the workers. This outreach is to bring awareness of these recent accidents and their causes, to ensure training is adequate at the mine, and to give and receive feedback as to how we can prevent any more of these accidents in the future.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 15, 2017

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

“The entire UMWA family mourns the loss of our Brother, Rodney Osborne, who was killed at the Gateway Eagle mine in Boone County, W. Va., yesterday. Our hearts and prayers are with his young family at this most difficult time, and we stand ready to assist them in any way we can.

“Brother Osborne, a member of UMWA Local Union 1503, was just 32 years old. Our safety experts have already been in the mine and examined the area where the incident that took his life occurred. Our team continues to participate in the investigation into this tragedy and we will not rest until we fully understand what happened so that we can prevent it from ever happening again.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAY 19, 2017

 

UMWA mourns loss of miner at Pinnacle mine

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

“The hearts and prayers of the entire UMWA family are with the family of our brother Luches Rosser, 44, a member of UMWA Local Union 1713, who was killed last night at the Pinnacle mine in Wyoming County, W. Va.”

“Our Local Union and International safety representatives are at the mine now, participating in the investigation of this incident. We stand ready to assist Brother Rosser’s family in any way we can.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 4, 2017

UMWA hails vote to pass permanent health care funding for 22,600 retirees, widows

[TRIANGLE, VA] The vote today by the United States Senate to pass the Continuing Resolution funding the government means that 22,600 retired coal miners, their dependents and widows will receive the health care they earned and were promised by their government for the rest of their lives, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts said today.

“We have been fighting this battle since Patriot Coal’s initial bankruptcy filing nearly five years ago,” Roberts said. “Tens of thousands of our members, both retired and active, have marched, rallied, written letters and made phone calls to their representatives in Washington, urging passage of this legislation. They deserve the lion’s share of the credit for getting us to this day.”

The legislation, which was part of the Miners Protection Act, will incorporate into the 1993 Benefit Plan those beneficiaries who had lost health care coverage as a result of recent bankruptcies and closures of coal companies. These miners will be treated the same as beneficiaries under the Coal Act which provides that solvent coal companies must be responsible for their own retirees but when companies fail the government will step in to assist in providing retirement benefits.

“This will mean the difference between life and death for thousands of senior citizens throughout the coalfields,” Roberts said. “These elderly people have been living with the cruel anxiety of not knowing how long their health care would last. They didn’t know if they could get prescriptions they needed to live, get life-saving treatments for cancers or other illnesses, or stay in their nursing homes. Now they have the peace of mind they need to live out their lives without that to worry about.

“We are very appreciative of the bi-partisan coalition of Senators and Representatives who came together and worked so hard on this,” Roberts said. “Our lead sponsors in the Senate, Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), were relentless in their efforts. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Oh.), Rob Portman (R-Oh.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N. Dak.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) also worked very hard on this legislation.

“I also want to thank Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of whom supported a permanent fix for these health care benefits and who worked together to make this happen,” Roberts said.

“In the House, Representative David McKinley (R-W. Va.) was our lead sponsor and strong advocate,” Roberts said. “Others who played key roles were Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.), Mike Doyle, (D-Pa.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Steve Stivers (R-Oh.), Mike Bost (R-Ill.), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Jim Renacci (R-Oh.), Tim Ryan (D-Oh.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and Hal Rogers (R-Ky.). And Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi never wavered in her support for our retirees.”

Roberts noted that preserving the health care benefits was just one part of the Miners Protection Act. “As much as we enjoy this victory, our fight is not over,” he said. “We must waste no time to develop a solution to the pension crisis that is looming for even more retired miners and widows. If Congress does not act soon, 89,000 current pensioners and 30,000 of those who are owed a pension in the future will not get what they earned.

“We have been working on preserving the pensions since the Great Recession of 2008-09 caused this problem,” Roberts said. “We look forward to again solving this problem in a bi-partisan manner and ensuring that these retirees get the full spectrum of benefits they earned working in our nation’s coal mines, putting their lives and their health on the line every single day to produce the fuel that powered America.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAY 1, 2017

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

“The inclusion of permanent funding for the health care of 22,600 retired coal miners, their dependents and widows in the 2017 omnibus appropriations bill is tremendous news. Swift passage of that bill by Congress this week will mean that those senior citizens and their families will finally have the peace of mind about their future that has eluded them for years.

“Many people in Congress have worked very hard to bring us to this point, both Republicans and Democrats. I especially want to thank our lead sponsors, Senators Joe Manchin, Shelley Moore Capito and Rep. David McKinley, all from West Virginia, who were lions in this fight. Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman from Ohio, Bob Casey from Pennsylvania and Mark Warner and Tim Kaine from Virginia were also great leaders in this effort.

“I want to thank Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Ron Wyden from Oregon, who led the effort to move us through the Finance Committee, and all of the 18 Senators on that committee who voted in favor of this bill last September.

“And when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell weighed in late last year supporting a permanent fix for these benefits, that proved to be a decisive moment in the Senate. Our sincere thanks go to him, as well as to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who played a critical role to ensure that this deal came about.

“In the House, Rep. McKinley went repeatedly to leadership, other members and whoever else would listen about this bill and never once backed away from this fight. Reps. Evan Jenkins (WV), Mike Doyle (PA), Bobby Scott (VA), Tim Ryan (OH), Steve Stivers (OH), Jim Renacci (OH), Hal Rogers (KY), Andy Barr (KY), Mike Bost (IL), Rodney Davis (IL) and so many others were stalwarts in this effort. Their collective efforts brought House leadership to the point of agreement, and I cannot say enough about them.

“Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has long been a champion of this effort, and we appreciate her willingness to go to the mat for us. I also want to thank Speaker Paul Ryan for considering and eventually agreeing to the permanent fix that was so badly needed.

“The thousands of UMWA members who marched, rallied, made phone calls and wrote letter after letter to their representatives in Washington were the keys to this. Their efforts made the critical difference, and to them goes the lion’s share of the credit for getting us to this point.”

“Now, let’s pass this and move on to preserving the pensions of 89,000 more retirees who earned them in blood and toil.”

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