Mine Workers Help Power America
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Check out this video from the Mine Workers (UMWA) showing coal miners providing the energy that powers America.
We are proud of who we are and what we do. We power America and make a difference for our communities every day. We’re working families—just like yours.
Massey CEO Set to Open More Coal Mines
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Don Blankenship was head of Massey Energy when 29 coal miners lost their lives in a massive explosion. Forced to resign, he has been largely invisible since.
Now he’s filed papers to start another coal mine venture. According to BusinessWeek:
Public records show that Blankenship has incorporated a new venture in Kentucky. Paperwork for McCoy Coal Group Inc. of Belfry, Ky., has been on file since January, though, and it has yet to seek a single mining permit, says Kentucky Energy and Environment spokesman Dick Brown.
Following the April 2010 the explosian at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine, a Mine Workers (UMWA) report on the disaster summed up the tragedy in its title: Industrial Homicide. An independent report on the disaster commissioned by former Gov. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) concluded the responsibility for the explosion “lies with the management of Massey Energy…[B]y frequently and knowingly violating the law and blatantly disregarding known safety practices….Massey exhibited a corporate mentality that placed the drive to produce coal above worker safety.” And an investigation by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) found the company kept two sets of books to hide safety problems. Read the rest of this entry »
Former Massey Official Guilty in Upper Big Branch Mine Case
The former director of security at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine was found guilty in federal court of lying to federal agents and destroying documents sought by investigators looking into the deadly blast. Twenty-nine miners were killed in the 2010 explosion.
Hughie Elbert Stover faces up to 25 years in prison after being convicted on two felony counts of making a false statement and trying to cover up records in a federal investigation.
At press conference following yesterday’s verdict, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said:
This will send a very clear message that this is way too important an investigation to obstruct. We need to get to the bottom of what circumstances led to this explosion and who was responsible. Read the rest of this entry »
Mine Workers Report: Upper Big Branch ‘A Bomb Waiting to Go Off’
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There were many factors that led up to the April 5, 2010, explosion that killed 29 coal miners at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine, according to a new Mine Workers (UMWA) report on the disaster. But according to the report—”Industrial Homicide“—“there is only one source for all of them:”
A rogue corporation, acting without real regard for mine safety and health law and regulations, that established a physical working environment that can only be described as a bomb waiting to go off.
And that same company established a working environment where, operating through subterfuge, fear and intimidation, management prevented any opportunity for the workers to know the full range of dangerous conditions in the mine, or to effectively protest them even if they did know. Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey State AFL-CIO: 50 Years of Making a Difference
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In this op-ed, Charles Wowkanech and Laurel Brennan, president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO describe the state federation’s 50 years of making a difference.
Fifty years ago today, George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, symbolically “tied the knot” linking the hands of AFL leader Vincent Murphy and CIO chief Joel Jacobson.
More than 3,000 delegates gathered in Newark to cheer the “shotgun wedding” that united the New Jersey labor movement and ended a 25-year rivalry during which the two federations raced against each other to organize hundreds of thousands of workers across the state.
Ky. Working Families Not Resting on Big Lead in Gov.’s Race
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Union-endorsed Gov. Steve Beshear (D) is up two dozen points over state Senate President David Williams (R), his challenger in the gubernatorial race, which will be decided Nov. 8. Still, Bill Londrigan, Kentucky State AFL-CIO president and member of the Elevator Constructors (IUEC), warns that:
“Anything can happen between now and Election Day. We can expect a whole lot of money coming into the state to undermine our candidate. You can never rest until it’s over. If you do, you give the other side a chance to catch up. We are going to work as hard as we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The latest Louisville Courier-Journal/WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll has Beshear, who also earned the state AFL-CIO endorsement in 2007, leading Williams by 24 points.
Four years ago, Beshear unseated Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher. Jeff Wiggins, a United Steelworkers member (USW) and president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council, says, “Williams is another Fletcher.”
‘Time for Working Class to Have A Voice’ in Budget Debate
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
Fed up with inaction and partisan-political game playing in Washington, Kentuckians gathered in Louisville to call upon Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to stop the partisan politics and pass a budget that works for all working families, not just millionaire CEOs. They called out their senator for putting the 2012 elections ahead of the needs of his own constituents who would be impacted by deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
A delegation that included Rev. Charles Elliott, local voters and United Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts attempted to visit McConnell’s office, but when all but two were turned away by security, Roberts joined the crowd marching around the federal building while Rev. Elliott and a local senior citizen met with staff.
In nearly 100 degree heat, the crowd prayed and sang, marched and rallied for a humane federal budget with sane priorities while the pair met with Sen. McConnell’s staff. Roberts said “It is time for the working class to have a voice in this debate.” He called upon McConnell as well as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to stop holding the economy hostage. Even as the rally was coming to a close, another round began arriving on their lunch hour, with signs calling for no cuts to the critical programs that Kentucky families need. Read the rest of this entry »
Alpha Natural Resources Subsidiaries Sign UMWA Contract
Workers at two mines owned by subsidiaries of Alpha Natural Resources are receiving a $1 per hour pay raise immediately now that management signed the Mine Workers (UMWA) national collective bargaining agreement today. The agreement covers nearly 1,400 miners at the Cumberland and Emerald mines in Greene County, Pa., and will be retroactive to July 1.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts said there are a few local issues that are different in the Alpha agreement, but that the pay, health care and pension benefits language is the same as in the national agreement.
“The miners at those mines have already overwhelming ratified this agreement, so there will not be another vote and the contract will take effect immediately,” Roberts said.
That means miners’ pay will be increased by $1 per hour immediately. That means their health care will be preserved with no cuts or added costs. That means that health care and pensions for current and future retirees is secured.
The company also agreed that if it reopened the idled Wabash mine in Illinois before the end of 2013, the UMWA would remain the collective bargaining representative for the miners there and this agreement would be in effect.
Mine Workers Ratify New Contract
Members of the Mine Workers (UMWA) overwhelmingly ratified a new five-and-a-half-year contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) in a nationwide vote Friday.
Under the contract, workers will receive a $6-an-hour raise over term, their largest pay increase in the union’s 121-year history, according to UMWA President Cecil Roberts. The raises will begin with a dollar-an-hour increase July 1 and another dollar-an-hour increase on Jan. 1, 2012. Then workers will receive one-dollar increases each year until 2016. The agreement retains health care benefits for active and retired miners with no cuts and preserves the pension plan. The contract also provides increased benefits for sickness, accident, vision and dental and better life insurance terms.
UMWA, Coal Operators Reach Tentative Pact
The Mine Workers (UMWA) has reached a tentative 5.5 year agreement with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA), the union announced this morning.
The 125 UMWA locals covered by the BCOA agreement will vote on the contract Friday. Details will not be released until contract explanation meetings are held at each local Wednesday. If the agreement is ratified, it will take effect July 3.
UMWA President Cecil Robert called the contract talks “a long and intense process.”
We had many issues to confront, especially with respect to our pensions, health care and wages. But through the strength and solidarity UMWA members have historically demonstrated, we were able to meet those challenges.
