The Socialist Workers Campaign denounces the recent Supreme Court ruling voiding the contractual and legal obligation of Eastern Enterprises to continue to provide health benefits for retired miners and their families. The court decision is a serious attack on the United Mine Workers (UMWA), and all of labor.
In 1978 the United Mine Workers union negotiated contracts guaranteeing lifetime health benefits for all retired miners, including those whose employers had gone out of business. In 1992 Congress enacted a law extending this agreement to companies like Eastern that had previously signed contracts with the UMWA before 1978.
The 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court was posed in clear class terms. The court ruled the law violated the Fifth Amendment's ban on "taking" private property for public use without paying just compensation. This ruling is part of the offensive of the employers to boost their sagging rate of profit at the expense of working people.
The ruling opens the door to hundreds of corporations - the so-called "reach back" companies no longer involved in mining that supported Eastern's suit - to use this decision to cut health benefits to retired miners. LTV, with an estimated $145 million "liability," is one of these bosses. Like other companies, LTV can use this ruling to get off the hook and not pay a dime toward miners' health care.
We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the struggle of coal miners for top-quality health benefits whether they are working, laid-off, or retired. Retired workers should not be tossed aside once they are no longer producing profits for the bosses. As we age, health care becomes more, not less important. With the continued attacks on Black Lung benefits and safe working conditions in the mines, the fight for health care takes on added importance.
The labor movement must take up the fight for free, quality health care for all. Workers' health care should not be tied to the financial well being of their individual employers. Health care is a human right not a privilege of those who can afford to pay for it.
A fighting strategy to combat the austerity drive of the bosses against workers the world over is necessary. We can't rely on politicians or employers to advance our interests. The only time workers have advanced is when we have organized to fight for our rights. Workers are fighting today from the strikes against General Motors in the U.S. to those in Puerto Rico protesting the privatization of the phone company. Linking up with these fights and others will be necessary as part of the fight against the coal bosses and their assault on miners' health and safety.