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Murray Energy Exits Bankruptcy, Rehires Union Miners
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (OVR) — Coal mining giant Murray Energy Corp. has emerged from bankruptcy with a new name and a commitment to rehire all of its former union employees, according to a news release from the United Mine Workers of America. UMWA President Cecil Roberts said on Wednesday that a new collective bargaining agreement has… Read More
Remembering A Miner Who Personified Coal’s Contributions And Costs
By: Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Charles Wayne Stanley ran underground mining machines for some 20 years, cutting coal from beneath the hills where Virginia meets Kentucky along the Cumberland ridge. He spent another decade as a roof bolter, work that kept the rock above from falling in on his fellow miners. Stanley was 53 when the Ohio Valley ReSource and… Read More
Former Blackjewel Miners Could Get More Money From Proposed Settlement
By: Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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CASPER, Wyo. (OVR) — A proposed $17.3 million settlement of a class action lawsuit would provide additional payment for hundreds of Appalachian coal miners who were suddenly left jobless by the abrupt bankruptcy of the Blackjewel mining company. The settlement must be approved by the judge overseeing the complicated Blackjewel bankruptcy case. Although it is not… Read More
Mine Safety Officials Won’t Do More To Protect Coal Miners From COVID-19, Letter Says
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (OVR) —The Mine Safety and Health Administration is declining to issue an emergency temporary standard that could protect coal miners whose jobs make them vulnerable to the coronavirus. That’s according to an August 14 letter from Department of Labor Deputy Assistant Secretary Joe Wheeler to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. MSHA can issue emergency temporary… Read More
Oversight Office: MSHA Should Do More To Protect Miners In Pandemic
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (OVR) — The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has not done enough to protect coal miners during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from an oversight agency released Tuesday. Through interviews with MSHA officials and union representatives, as well as reviews of state and national policies, the Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector… Read More
Coal and COVID-19: Lung Impairment Makes Miners Especially Vulnerable to Coronavirus
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WHITESBURG, Ky. (OVR) — Underground coal miners start their shifts getting changed in closely packed changing rooms. They ride rail cars to their worksite, shoulder-to-shoulder, sometimes for more than an hour. And once they’re underground, ventilation designed to tamp down coal dust blows air through the mine. All that makes a coal mine the kind… Read More
‘There’s Going To Be Something Better for Him’: Former Blackjewel Miners Reflect on Changes in Coal Country
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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On a blistering August afternoon in Cumberland, Kentucky, David Pratt, Jr. stood in the middle of a two-lane highway, holding a sign that read “COAL MINERS AND TRUCKERS AGAINST CORPORATE AMERICA.” A few yards away, his father, David Pratt Sr., who is graying but still muscular, leaned back in a lawn chair perched precariously on… Read More
UMWA Wants More Coronavirus Protections for Coal Miners
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The United Mine Workers of America is asking federal regulators to set uniform, enforceable guidelines to help protect coal miners from contracting COVID-19. In a letter dated Tuesday, March 24, UMWA President Cecil Roberts wrote to the Mine Safety and Health Administration requesting the agency issue a “safeguard” or “emergency standard” that would require coal mine operators… Read More
Scientists, Mine Safety Officials Discuss Black Lung Protections
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Officials with the Mine Safety and Health Administration met for the first time with miners’ health researchers Wednesday in a new partnership designed to discuss ways to better protect coal miners from the dust that causes black lung disease. In future meetings, representatives from the two agencies will discuss recommendations made by the National Academy of Sciences… Read More
More Unpaid Appalachian Miners Stage a Coal Train Blockade
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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For the second time since summer, eastern Kentucky coal miners are blockading a railroad track to protest unpaid wages. The new blockade, which was started Monday afternoon by Quest Energy miners, echoes the months-long blockade by Blackjewel coal miners over the summer and speaks to a growing discontent in Appalachian coal country. “It’s hard to go… Read More
After Nearly A Decade Of Anxiety Over Pensions, Coal Miners See Light At The End Of The Tunnel
By: Becca Schimmel | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Union coal miners and retirees breathed a collective sigh of relief after the U.S. Senate passed a spending bill that includes support for miners’ pensions, which had been at risk due to the coal industry’s downturn. The bill, which funds the federal government for the coming year, also includes The Bipartisan American Miners Act which secures pension… Read More
Study Shows Surface Coal Miners are Exposed to Toxic Dust that Causes Black Lung
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Appalachian surface coal miners are consistently overexposed to toxic silica dust, according to new research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and surface mine dust contains more silica than does dust in underground coal mines. The research is the first to specifically analyze long-term data on exposure to toxic silica dust for workers… Read More
MSHA Comment Period Shows Divide on Measures to Protect Miners Health
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The comment period has closed for the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s proposed rule on respirable silica, a major contributor to skyrocketing rates of lung disease among coal miners. The 49 relevant comments included a striking testimony from an anonymous coal miner sharing details of the ways in which current mine operators cheat on dust… Read More
Black Lung Trust Fund Likely Burdened by Murray Bankruptcy
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The recent bankruptcy of Murray Energy is likely to significantly increase the debt of a struggling federal trust fund that supports disabled miners’ health care expenses. According to court filings, Murray Energy could be responsible for as much as $155 million under the Black Lung Act and general workers’ compensation, but testimony from the Government Accountability… Read More
Bill Addresses Pensions, Health Care for Miners, Retirees
By: John Raby | AP
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is co-sponsoring a bill with West Virginia’s two U.S. senators and others aimed at preserving the pensions of about 92,000 retired coal miners, as well as the health-care benefits of another 13,000 working miners. Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia announced… Read More
Murray Energy’s Bankruptcy Could Bring Collapse of Coal Miners’ Pensions
By: Becca Schimmel | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The recent bankruptcy of Ohio Valley coal giant Murray Energy has renewed fears about the already shaky financial foundations of the pension plan that tens of thousands of miners and their families depend upon. The seismic collapse of yet another coal employer has lawmakers from the region renewing their push to fix the United Mine Workers pension… Read More
Blackjewel Miners Get More of Their Pay as Labor Dept. Acts Against Bankrupt Company
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Coal miners who went without pay when mining company Blackjewel declared bankruptcy this June are one step closer to receiving lost wages. The checks come weeks after some of the miners ended a long-running protest, and months after the federal Department of Labor first intervened to allege the company violated labor laws in the month… Read More
Former Blackjewel Miners End Railroad Blockade In Kentucky
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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The nearly two-month blockade of a Kentucky railroad track is coming to an end as unpaid coal miners end their protest in order to take new jobs, start classes, or move away from their coal-dependent communities. When coal company Blackjewel abruptly declared bankruptcy in July, it left some 1100 Appalachian coal miners in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia without pay…. Read More
Paychecks Cut For Some Blackjewel Miners; Others Still Wait
By: Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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West Virginia employees of coal operator Blackjewel LLC have received their final paychecks more than two months after the company declared bankruptcy on July 1. In an agreement reached last week between the Department of Labor and the company, Blackjewel cut paper checks for all owed wages to a few dozen employees working at the… Read More
Coal Mine Electrician Dies in Accident at West Virginia Mine
By: Associated Press
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia officials say a 40-year-old coal mine electrician has died in an accident. The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training says Steven Vernon Keeney of Sylvester died of injuries from an apparent electrical shock. The accident happened at 12:18 a.m. Tuesday at the Panther Creek Mining American… Read More
Kentucky Labor Cabinet Requesting Bond Payment from Coal Companies
By: Associated Press
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Labor Cabinet has sent letters to coal and construction companies that might be in violation of a state law that requires a bond to cover employee wages. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that over the last few weeks, the cabinet wrote to 89 companies that have failed to pay the bond. Last… Read More
On Labor Day, Miners Mark Historic Union March
By: Emily Allen | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ninety-eight years ago, thousands of pro-union miners marched toward West Virginia’s Logan County, to protest abuses by coal operators in what was then a largely anti-union territory. The marchers were met at Blair Mountain in Logan County by an army of men, fighting on behalf of anti-union mine guards and local law enforcement. The battle… Read More
Mines That Change Owners Have Worse Safety Record, Audit Finds
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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A new federal government report shows that mines that changed ownership had worse safety records than mines where ownership did not change. According to an audit from the Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General, mines that changed ownership during a 17-year period were nearly twice as likely to have safety violations, and five times as likely to report severe accidents… Read More
“Bloody Harlan” Revisited: Blackjewel Miners Draw On Labor History While Facing Uncertain Future
By: Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Curtis Cress sat in the gravel beside a railroad track in Harlan County, Kentucky. Tall and thin with a long, black beard, Cress is every bit a coal miner, or, he was until a month ago. “It’s part of my heritage, you know? My dad and papaws had always done it,” he said. “And I’m… Read More
Few Answers For Unpaid Miners After Day One of Blackjewel Sales Hearing
By: Brittany Patterson | Sydney Boles | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Blackjewel coal miners will have to wait at least another day to learn if the sale of the bankrupt coal company’s mines and equipment will deliver their overdue paychecks. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia recessed Monday after an all-day hearing that yielded few results. The court is scheduled to… Read More