NLRB Orders Coal Co. to Rehire 85 Mine Workers

by Mike Hall, Oct 2, 2009

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Mammoth Coal Co., a subsidiary of Massey Energy, to recognize and bargain with the Mine Workers (UMWA) as the exclusive representative of the workers at its Mammoth Mine in Smithers, W.Va. 

The Sept. 30 ruling also orders Mammoth to rehire 85 former workers at the mine who were not hired when Massey bought the operation in 2004. Says UMWA President Cecil Roberts: 

This tremendous victory affirms what we have been saying all along. Mammoth Coal had an obligation to recognize the union when it bought this mine out of bankruptcy, and it had an obligation to rehire the miners who were working there at the time the board found were discriminated against because of their union membership. 

Along with rehiring the workers, the NLRB ordered Mammoth to make those employees whole in terms of loss of “earnings and other benefits they may have suffered by reason of (Mammoth’s) unlawful refusal to hire them.”

In 2007, an NLRB administrative law judge (ALJ) found that the Massey subsidiary had violated the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to hire former union members who worked at the mine simply because of their support for the union. 

The judge also found the company had violated the federal labor law by refusing to recognize the UMWA as the bargaining representative of the miners and by unilaterally changing the bargaining unit’s terms and conditions of employment. The UMWA had represented the miners at that mine since 1969 under a succession of several owners. In July, a federal appeals court upheld the ALJ’s rulings.

Says Roberts:

Words cannot express my feelings for the miners who have suffered tremendously throughout this long, five-year struggle and have persevered through extremely difficult times and come out on top. This is a great day for them, a great day for their families, and a great day for American working people.

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