Thousands join UMWA rally for jobs, benefits
Don Luketic, the financial secretary of Local Union 4047, rises when United Mine Workers of America President Cecil E. Roberts asked a crowd of supporters at an April 1, 2016, Waynesburg, Pa. Mitchell Day rally to acknowledge the efforts of local union leaders.
United Mine Workers of America President Cecil E. Roberts rallies 5,000 supporters who showed up to a Waynesburg, Pa. rally to celebrate Mitchell Day, a UMWA union holiday, on April 1, 2016.
A trailer bedecked in United Mine Workers of America regalia led a march of around 5,000 miners down Route 21 in Waynesburg, Pa. to celebrate Mitchell Day, a UMWA union holiday, on April 1, 2016. S.B. 1714 is a state bill that would preserve the healthcare and pension benefits promised to coal miners despite the bankruptcies of the companies that employed them.
Chuck Burgess of Uniontown holds an American flag at a Mitchell Day rally in Waynesburg, Pa., where United Mine Workers of America members and supporters showed up to express solidarity with organized labor movements. Burgess, who works in the Cumberland Mine in Waynesburg, Pa., showed up to the rally on April 1, 2016, with around 5,000 other UMWA members.
A supporter of the United Mine Workers of America holds up a Solidarity sign as 5,000 miners and UMWA supporters march down Route 21 in Waynesburg, Pa. to express solidarity for organized labor movements on April 1, 2016, Mitchell Day, an annual UMWA union holiday.
5,000 coal miners and supporters, with United Mine Workers of America President Cecil E. Roberts holding the banner in the front, march down Route 21 in Waynesburg, Pa. to a Mitchell Day rally on April 1, 2016 to celebrate the UMWA holiday and to rally for the continued efforts of coal miners and other organized labor movements.
John Duncan of Mt. Hope, W.Va. marches down Route 21 in Waynesburg, Pa. for a Mitchell Day rally for the United Mine Workers of America. Around 5,000 UMWA members and supporters showed up to the rally, which featured UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts on April 1, 2016.
UMWA Local Union 2300 president Chuck Knisell holds up a contract offer from Alpha Natural Resources, of which he said "even Ray Charles could see that this is garbage." Knisell and around 5,000 other United Mine Workers of America members showed up to a Mitchell Day Rally in Waynesburg, Pa. on April 1, 2016 for the union holiday and to express solidarity for organized labor beyond mine workers.
According to United Mine Workers of America President Cecil E. Roberts, 5,000 supporters showed up to a Waynesburg, Pa. rally to celebrate Mitchell Day, a UMWA union holiday, and to express solidarity for organized labor throughout America on April 1, 2016.
WAYNESBURG — Thousands of active and retired union coal miners recently joined United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts and other union leaders in Waynesburg in raising their voices to show solidarity in an effort to protect miners’ benefits and jobs.
The rally was held on Friday, April 1, which was Mitchell Day — a day named in honor of early UMWA President John Mitchell who secured eight-hour work days for miners.
After leading a procession of chanting UMWA members on a mile-and-a-half march from the Greene County Airport to the county fairgrounds, Roberts said mine operators such as Alpha Natural Resources, which owns the Cumberland and Emerald mines in Greene County, are trying to cut wages and retiree benefits in its bankruptcy proceedings.
Alpha is seeking to cut employee wages by $6.40 an hour and reduce their health care benefits and eliminate health care benefits for retired miners, Roberts said.
“They worked for their health care. They gave their lives for their health care, and nobody should be allowed to take it,” Roberts exclaimed to a roar from the crowd that filled the dirt-floored 4H Horse Barn.
He said 1,200 miners lost their health care benefits when Murray Energy bought Consol Energy’s mines in 2013.
Mine operators have been trying to take health care benefits and pensions from retired miners since 2012, he said.
“They’ll have to take it because we sure as hell ain’t going to give it to them,” Robert said.
The UMWA has spent $10 million fighting coal mine bankruptcies, he added.
“Bankruptcy is just a way for corporations to rob workers of everything they’ve earned,” Roberts said.
In addition to protecting benefits, the UMWA is about to begin negotiating a new national contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, he said.
He said the UMWA won’t endorse a presidential candidate until one vows to protect miners’ benefits.
“Until someone does, we will not endorse anybody,” Roberts said.
Efforts to shut down coal mines to reduce climate change are misguided, Roberts said. If all coal mines were closed, the environmental impact would only be a 1 percent reduction in global warming, he said.
“When I turn on the light switch, and the light comes on, I know who to thank, the United Mine Workers of America,” state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, said. “Coal is not a dirty four-letter word. I see it everyday in Harrisburg, and I won’t stand for it.”
Pensions and health care benefits are not entitlements and all labor unions should stand together to protect them, she said.
“You earned it,” Snyder said.
Blair Zimmerman, chairman of the Greene County commissioners and a retired miner from the Cumberland Mine, said he is worried about losing his pension in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.
“After 40 years, the thought of losing my pension sickens me” Zimmerman said.
He encouraged the audience to contact their elected officials and tell them to support protecting miners’ benefits.
Terrence Melvin, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and secretary/treasurer of the AFL-CIO in New York, gave a fiery speech urging UMWA membership to oppose corporate efforts to cut pensions and health care.
“We worked for them, and we’re not giving them back,” Melvin shouted to a standing ovation and cheer.
“You are not alone in this battle,” he said.
Frank Snyder, a member of the United States Steelworkers Union and secretary/treasurer of AFL-CIO in Pennsylvania, called elected officials in Washington D.C. and Harrisburg who want to do away with the coal industry “fools on the hill.”
“There are a number of fools on the hill who want to destroy everything you’re about. We’re not going to let them do that,” Snyder said.
He told the membership to carefully chose who they vote for.
Darrin Kelly, vice president of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, said the coal industry was vital in the country’s industrial revolution and in military production for World War II, and miners earned their benefits.
“We don’t deserve anything. We’re labor. We earned what we have,” Kelly said.