Without comment, the court cast aside the arguments of Unity Real Estate Co. and Barnes & Tucker. The two firms said that the 1992 Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act (Coal Act) violated their rights. The former coal companies, arguing their case along constitutional grounds, claimed they were being forced to pay retroactive health-care benefits and that this amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their property without compensation.

Both companies had subsidiaries in the coal mining business until the 1980s, and each of them signed contracts with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in 1974, 1978, and 1981. Unity Real Estate is responsible for 76 beneficiaries and Barnes & Tucker, which closed four mines and left the coal industry in 1986, was assigned 1,200 beneficiaries. The two companies claim the ruling will force them into bankruptcy proceedings.

The Coal Act, signed into law by former president George Bush in 1992, was established to shore up depleted funds needed to cover miners' lifetime health benefits. All companies that signed a UMWA contract after 1974 are required to pay lifetime health benefits to retirees. Since passage of the 1992 legislation, there have been more than 60 challenges to the law. In recent years the union fund has been dealt blows by a handful of court rulings. The biggest setback came in 1998 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Eastern Enterprises was not required to make payments to the fund. Eastern is today a subsidiary of Peabody Coal.

The UMWA maintains the Combined Benefit Fund (CBF), which was established under the Coal Act and provides benefits for about 70,000 retired miners and their families. The fund has 19,500 beneficiaries in West Virginia, 13,300 in Pennsylvania, 8,230 in Kentucky, 5,580 in Virginia, and 4,500 in Ohio. It is the largest of five pension and benefit funds run by the union. Today the fund is in the red nearly $50 million, and over the next five years the union estimates the deficit will reach in excess of $250 million.

The ruling comes in the context of stepped-up efforts by the union to organize its members to demand that the government guarantee health coverage with no cut in benefits. Throughout the country's coalfields, miners and their families have rallied in defense of their right to lifetime health care. Mass meetings of thousands of retired miners were held in Alabama, Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Utah in September. Since then many union districts have organized petition campaigns in their regions aimed at winning support from Congress. In Pennsylvania, the effort has been led by District 2 of the UMWA.

The fund has a social significance beyond providing health care to miners. Many hospitals in the coalfields were created and maintained by the fund, thereby providing health care to entire communities.

Hospitals in West Virginia's coalfields face an additional threat today due to reductions in the federal Medicare program. The Man Appalachian Regional Hospital in Logan County — which also serves communities in Mingo and Wyoming counties — will close its doors at the end of this year. The only other hospital in the county is Logan General, which filed for bankruptcy in 1998.

The first fruits of the union's lobbying effort were announced October 14 at a press conference on Capitol Hill. According to a UMWA press release, "$68 million from the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation fund to the UMWA Combined Benefit Fund has been included in a Department of Interior budget bill for fiscal year 2000."

The stopgap measure, which was promoted by Sen. Robert Byrd and Congressman Nick Rahall, both Democrats from West Virginia, still needs congressional and presidential approval. The miners union is also campaigning for a longer term measure that would finance future health benefits with earnings from the $1.4 billion Abandoned Mine Lands fund. This bill, supported by West Virginia Democratic senator Jay Rockefeller, is also before Congress.

In other news, Consol, the largest underground coal-producing company in the United States, announced in late September that it will be closing three union mines — Urling No. 1, Emilie, and Plumcreek — in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. The company reported that the mines' reserves are depleted. About 560 UMWA miners will be laid off later this year from the three sites.

Just a month later the coal giant announced another large layoff affecting another 295 union miners at two underground mines and a preparation plant in Indiana County. A year ago Consol acquired these mines from Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Co. for $150 million, a reflection of the intense "efficiency drive" and consolidation taking place in the industry.  
 
 
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