"Are the closings money or break the unions?" asks a sign posted near the Lucerne mine, a Helvetia Coal mine that is scheduled to close at Christmas.

In a letter printed in the Indiana Gazette, Mary Carcella, the daughter of a miner at Lucerne, asked, "How many are aware of the far-reaching impact that a job reduction of this magnitude will have?"

At the end of the year, nearly 300 more members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in this area will be out of a job, bringing to 850 the number of miners laid off by coal giant Consol Energy in Indiana and Armstrong counties over the last two months of 1999. Consol Energy acquired the Keystone and Helvetia mines in 1998 as part of its $150 million purchase of the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Co. (R&P). Consol is the largest underground mining company in the United States.

The mine closings decimate the ranks of the UMWA and are a huge blow to the surrounding coalfield communities in this region east of Pittsburgh. Mining has been a mainstay for decades in these rural counties. In 2000 there will be only one union mine left operating.

Most of the other 15 or more mines in the area are small operations. The one other larger coal company, Canterbury Coal, broke the union in a strike that began in 1985. The layoffs will bring the number of underground miners in the area to under 1,000. Total coal employment in Indiana County in 1982 was around 6,000.

The Indiana mines use conventional methods to work the Upper Freeport and Upper Kittanning seams, which are relatively thin seams of coal. In Washington and Greene counties south and west of Pittsburgh, Consol mines work the Pittsburgh seam, which is seven to nine feet thick and suited for longwall operations.

Longwall mining involves more capital expenditure than conventional mining, but is very productive. A shear is used to cut coal from a face that can be 1,000 feet wide on a coal panel two miles long. Consol is the largest longwall operator in the country and more than 80 percent of its 1998 production came from longwall mining.

Both Keystone and Helvetia Coal operated "captive mines" that provided coal specifically for large electric generating stations—Keystone and Homer City respectively—with the coal preparation plants built right next to the generating stations.

Miners explain that when the power stations were built, the local community helped provide roads and land. "We lost the land. We lost roads and everything else," said Gary Parks, who worked at the Emilie mine. "The big payoff was supposed to be that the people in this area would have jobs forever. That was the idea. It was supposed to be here forever."

While Consol talks of the mines being "uneconomic," there are 450 million tons of recoverable reserves within 20 miles of the Keystone generating station. Robin James, a miner at Lucerne, told the Militant that to Consol it is simple: "In Greene County it costs them $8 a ton and here it costs $23 a ton" to mine coal.

Dennis Mytrysac, president of the UMWA at the Emilie mine, said, "There are coal reserves out there, but Consol has decided not to open new mines." He explained that there were "problems with mining coal at a competitive price before Consol bought R&P because of the old machinery and equipment we had to work with at the Emilie mine."  
 

Consol invests in nonunion operations

Rich Fink, president of the UMWA local at Keystone's Urling mine, said, "I have never felt that our mines were in the plans for Consol from the time it bought R&P. I always felt that Consol bought R&P to get its foot in the door to sell coal to the Keystone and Homer City generating stations so they could ship coal in from their huge longwall mines in Washington and Greene counties and West Virginia."

Consol has confirmed that they will ship coal to the generating stations from their mines in Washington and Greene counties. Consol's Enlow Fork and Bailey mines in Greene County are the largest and third largest underground mines in the country. Last year together they produced more than 17 million tons of coal; in one month this year, Enlow Fork alone produced over 1 million tons. The opening of these mines as nonunion operations in 1985 and 1990 was a big blow to the union.

The five underground mines and one surface mine operated by Keystone and Helvetia last year produced about 4 million tons. While Consol has put no expenditure into the Keystone and Helvetia mines since purchasing them, it plowed more than $200 million into the Bailey/Enlow Fork complex in the four years ending December 1998.

Miners also said that getting other mining jobs in the area at nonunion mines will be hard given Consol's plans to ship coal to the generating stations. Robin James explained that Consol "will put all these one-bucket nonunion outfits out of business too. Consol will flood the market."

Consol's aim with the purchase of Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal is obvious in the company's report on Mine No. 84, a longwall mine in Washington County that was part of R&P. Consol says the mine doubled production while employment was slashed and one longwall machine was pulled from the mine. The coal giant says it will produce 6 million tons from this mine in 1999. The ranks of UMWA miners at No. 84 were halved after Consol took over.

On their Investor Information web page, Consol brags, "We also got some nice contracts to serve new customers—Homer City and Keystone/Conemaugh power plants." Consol also favorably points to the recent purchase of the Homer City plant by Edison Mission Energy, which is planning to spend $250 million on new scrubbers for the plant so that it can sell "deregulated electricity in two different power grids."

Consol explains that their target is to sell coal to the "deregulating electric generating markets of the Northeast" and that "by being in the right place we can capture economic rent that would otherwise go to the railroads."  
 

Miners petition to defend benefits

District 2 of the UMWA has been circulating petitions in support of lifetime health benefits. One petition has been circulated among miners; the other has been circulated in the coalfield communities, mainly by retirees. Union members and supporters have been collecting signatures at shopping centers and carried out a day of petitioning at Indiana University here.

Les Barnhouse, a retired miner from Blairsville, said it was easy getting support for the petition drive. "We have asked people to sign them at area supermarkets and as far away as the outlet stores in Grove City. Very few people have refused to sign the petitions when we told them we were trying to protect our health-care benefits."

Ed Yankovich, president of UMWA District 2, thinks that government aid is necessary to revive the coal industry in and around Indiana County. He said he approves of state assistance that has gone to stadiums in Pittsburgh and a shipyard in Philadelphia. "Why can't we do the same thing for Indiana County and Armstrong County to keep good-paying coal jobs?" he asked. The UMWA has been pushing career centers, which promote changing careers for coal miners.

Consol says it is opposed to state intervention and lobbied against legislation in Ohio for a tax credit. Consol spokesman Thomas Hoffman stated, "We're simply in favor of letting the marketplace work."  
 
 
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