FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 12, 2016
[TRIANGLE, VA.] Members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) today voted to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement at six Murray Energy mines in northern West Virginia and Ohio as well as support facilities and idled operations, with 60.3 percent voting in favor of the contract.
“This was a tough vote for our members to take,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “The coal industry is in a depression and more than 50 companies have filed for bankruptcy in the last few years. Thousands have been laid off. The pressures on those who are still working are tremendous and growing.
“But despite all that, our members took a courageous stand by voting to try to keep their company operating while maintaining the best wages, benefits and working conditions in the American coal industry,” Roberts said.
The new five-year agreement maintains wages at current levels and includes a wage reopener after three years. Health care benefits for active and retired workers and their dependents remain intact, with slight increases in out-of-pocket costs but no monthly premiums. Total annual days off from work are initially reduced, but many of those days are regained over the life of the agreement. Importantly, Murray Energy agreed to remain in the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan.
“In addition to the courage shown by our membership, I want to express my thanks to all those Local Union, District and International leaders who worked so hard on achieving this agreement,” Roberts said. “They did outstanding work.”
[TRIANGLE, VA.] UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts will lead contract explanation meetings next week at several locations in West Virginia and Ohio to explain a new tentative agreement with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) to the UMWA membership and their spouses.
The schedule and locations of the meetings is as follows:
Tuesday, Aug. 9: Wesbanco Arena in Wheeling, W.Va. at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., for members of UMWA Local Unions 1110, 1473, 1604, 1638, 1857 and 1886.
Wednesday, Aug. 10: Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown, W.Va. at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., for members of Local Unions 1197, 1248, 1412, 1501, 1545, 1643, 1702, 1980, 6025 and 9909.
Thursday, Aug. 11: Centerville Senior Center in Centerville, Ohio at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., for members of Local Unions 1810 and 5497.
The meetings are only for active and retired dues-paying members of the UMWA and their spouses. Details of the proposed agreement will be released after the ratification vote on Aug. 12.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 14, 2016
[TRIANGLE, VA.] Members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) ratified new collective bargaining agreements with Contura Energy, the company that is emerging from the Alpha Natural Resources Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings with operations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia; and with Alpha itself at several operations in West Virginia and Kentucky.
The new 4 ½ year collective bargaining agreement with Contura Energy was approved by 89% of those voting at the Cumberland and Emerald operations in Greene County, Pa., the Power Mountain preparation plant in Nicholas County, W.Va., and the McClure preparation plant in Dickinson County, Va.
The new agreement with Alpha Natural Resources covers workers at five preparation plants in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky and was approved by 98% of those voting. Only two of those operations, the Bandmill plant and the Litwar plant, are currently operating.
“As always happens in bankruptcy situations, Contura Energy and Alpha had orders from the bankruptcy Judge that eliminated the previous contract and stripped away any obligations for these companies to continue paying for pensions and retiree health care,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “We were essentially starting from zero in negotiating these agreements. Because of the solidarity our members at these operations, we were able to preserve virtually every article of the previous agreement other than defined benefit pensions and retiree health care.”
As per the bankruptcy Judge’s order, neither Contura Energy nor Alpha will pay into the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan going forward. In lieu of the companies paying for and administering retiree health care, lump-sum payments totaling $28.5 million will be paid to a Voluntary Employee Benefit Association (VEBA) that the UMWA will manage until that funding runs out.
“The loss of pension payments and company-paid retiree health care only adds to the critical need to pass pending legislation in Congress to ensure the retirees who mined the coal to energize our nation will get the retirement security America promised to them,” Roberts said. “The funding in the VEBA will not last long. Time is quickly running out for these and thousands of other retirees who depend on these benefits.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 1, 2016
[TRIANGLE, VA.] The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) announced today that it is donating $20,000 to help the victims of last week’s devastating floods in West Virginia.
The union is sending $15,000 to the American Red Cross West Virginia Region for direct assistance to families, and another $5,000 is going to the Southern Appalachian Labor School (SALS) to help offset the cost of a generator that is being used to supply power to hard-hit rural areas of the state.
“These devastating floods have caused terrible hardship and pain for tens of thousands of West Virginians, including many of our members and retirees,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “We want to do whatever we can to help provide some measure of comfort to them as they work to rebuild their lives.”
“The UMWA extends its heartfelt prayers to the victims of this tragic flood, especially to the families of those who lost their lives,” Roberts said. “We stand ready to assist in any way we can.”
The UMWA has some 25,000 active and retired members in West Virginia.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 30, 2016
[TRIANGLE, VA.] United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today:
“I am very encouraged by the bi-partisan agreement yesterday by Senate leadership and members to hold a mark-up vote in the Senate Finance Committee on the Miners Protection Act. We have been asking for this action to be taken for months, because time is growing very short if the health care benefits for tens of thousands of retirees are to be saved.
“I want to commend Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for his strong commitment to this issue and his tireless work in the Senate to move this legislation forward. I also want to thank Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Oh.) for taking this issue on and standing strong with us. In addition, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Oh.) and Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) publicly stood with us on the floor of the Senate and took a courageous vote on our behalf.
“Senate leadership of both parties – Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) came together and agreed to move this critical legislation forward yesterday. I thank them as well and appreciate this action very much.
“Now that there is an agreement to move forward in the Senate Finance Committee, I call on the committee to take up this bill and hold the mark-up without delay. I see no reason why the committee can’t take action within the next two weeks, before Congress leaves town for the summer.
“These retirees need to have some sense of comfort that their Congress is working for them instead of continuing to wonder if they will have the health care and pensions they were promised. Congress needs to hold the vote and pass this bill.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 28, 2016
[TRIANGLE, VA.] United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today regarding the vote by the UMWA membership to not ratify a proposed collective bargaining agreement with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association:
“This is a democratic union. The membership has had their say and I respect their decision,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “This is a very hard time for everyone in the coal industry, especially those who actually mine the coal. Thousands are laid off and those who remain at work confront ever-more difficult working conditions. Today’s vote reflects those difficulties and I understand that.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 20, 2016
[TRIANGLE, VA.] The International Executive Board of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), meeting at UMWA headquarters here yesterday, heard reports from Trustees of the UMWA Health and Retirement Funds and the Patriot Voluntary Employee Beneficial Association (VEBA) about the rapidly deteriorating status of the health care and pension funds covering tens of thousands of retirees throughout the Appalachian and Midwestern coalfields.
“The Trustees made it abundantly clear that there is no more time to wait if these funds are to be preserved,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. “With the current depression in the coal market the contributions to the 1974 Pension Fund have been cut by two-thirds from last year’s levels.
“More and more companies are receiving approval from bankruptcy courts to stop paying into the 1974 Fund, which will cause that situation to only get worse,” Roberts said. “The 1974 Fund pays out over $600 million per year to 89,000 retired coal miners and widows – an average benefit of $560 per month. Cutting those benefits won’t save the Pension Fund. Only Congress can do that, by living up to our nation’s 70-year promise to these retired miners and their widows.”
Roberts also noted that at least 21,000 retirees are at risk of losing their health care coverage at the end of the year due to the bankruptcies that have occurred in the coal industry in 2012 and 2015. “This situation is especially critical for them,” Roberts said. “The Trustees made it clear to us that they will have no choice but to send a letter in the next few months advising these senior citizens about the impending loss of their health care benefits.
“These miners worked for 25, 30, 40 or more years, always believing that the federal government would live up to the obligation it made to them in the White House in 1946 to guarantee retirement benefits,” Roberts said. “But they are now confronted with the very real possibility that this will be the first Congress to abandon that obligation in 70 years, making them feel as if they’ve been kicked to the curb.
“Our members are running out of both time and patience,” Roberts said. “This is an urgent issue that we intend to address immediately, both in the coalfields and in Washington, D.C. We will be urging Congress to take action without delay, because there is no more time.”
[CHARLESTON, W. VA.] United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil Roberts issued the following statement today:
“The television ad on the air in West Virginia from the Republican Governor’s Association about Jim Justice demonstrates just how tone deaf these out-of-state special interests are.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Jim Justice is the only candidate in this race who understands the coal industry and how to keep miners working. That’s why the UMWA endorsed him and that’s why coal miners and their families are voting for him.
“At a time when miners are being laid off all across our state, Jim Justice runs the only coal company in West Virginia that has put miners back to work and helped put food on their families’ tables. West Virginia coal miners know that; they aren’t going to be fooled by these kind of false attacks.”
[TRIANGLE, VA.] United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today:
“Yesterday’s ruling by Judge Kevin R. Huennekens stripping away our collective bargaining agreement with Alpha Natural Resource and wiping away the company’s obligation for retiree benefits came as no surprise.
“We are trying to reach an agreement with the company to resolve this issue, but if we are unable to do that we will have to examine our options. Alpha can attempt to impose whatever terms and conditions at its operations it may desire. That doesn’t mean our members will agree to work under them.”
[TRIANGLE, VA] United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today:
“The final rule issued this week by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is a tremendous step forward in breaking down many of the barriers miners face as they try to get their claims awarded for black lung disease they contracted as a result of working in America’s coal mines.
“This rule will mean that coal companies can no longer hide medical information from coal miners. All too frequently, companies would discover severe medical conditions, including the existence of black lung disease. But instead of sharing this life-saving information, the companies would keep it to themselves. That travesty will be over under this rule.
“This rule will also ensure that miners who have been awarded black lung benefits will actually get them during an appeals process. Far too many companies refuse to pay benefits while appealing an award, meaning that miners are frequently denied that small measure of comfort in their last days.
“As we work to end the scourge of black lung once and for all, it is critical that we provide all assistance possible to those who have contracted this awful disease. They went to work every day, did their jobs and provided for their families while producing the raw material that powers America. They have earned these benefits, many times over.”
