The February 23 action by United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) members was in response to the firing of a union member at the underground coal mine owned by Drummond Co.

Union officials said anger had been building among miners against Drummond Co. for some time.

It is not clear whether Drummond intends to reopen the mine soon. Some miners think the closing is only a threat by the company in order to retaliate against the strike and scare union members into giving up concessions. Others think Drummond may close the mine permanently.

Hundreds of miners were already on layoff from Shoal Creek before the strike. All other Drummond mines in Alabama have been closed in the last few years. Drummond's Cedrum facility, a surface mine located north of Jasper, Alabama, shut down at the end of last year, throwing 165 miners out of work. There are now only six UMWA-organized coal mines in the Alabama coalfields.

In a number of cases, coal mines have opened in virtually the same area where former Drummond mines once operated, except they are now run as nonunion operations. Wages, safety, and working conditions are considerably worse in nonunion mines in Alabama than when they were under UMWA contract. It is not uncommon for hourly wages in these mines to be set at less than $10 per hour. Some nonunion mines offer health benefits, but the premiums are usually sky-high. Others offer no medical coverage at all.

In this context, coal mines that traditionally have been nonunion are also slashing wages and benefits. The Taft Coal Company, for example, closed two surface mines south of Jasper about two years ago, and soon after opened a third in the vicinity. Miners who drove front-end loaders and rock trucks, jobs at the heart of surface mining operations, were told they could get jobs at the new mine, but their wages would be slashed from $18 to $10.50 an hour.

Layoffs are widespread through the coalfields as the price of coal has plummeted in recent months. Coal production in 1999 fell to 21 million tons from 24 million in 1998.

Many Alabama mines, including the struck Shoal Creek mine, provide much of their coal under contract to Alabama Power. But in recent years the power company has begun purchasing a substantial amount of coal from the western states at much reduced prices. Drummond Company is also supplying Alabama Power with 3.5 million tons of coal a year from one of its mines in Columbia, South America.  
 

Failure to notify of layoffs

In late January, the United Mine Workers sued Drummond Co. in federal court here for failing to give required notices before a large layoff in November. Under federal law, the company is supposed to give 60 days notice before they lay off more than 33 percent of its work force. Drummond at first said it would lay off 280 workers, which would have required the 60-day notification. The company's reply to the union lawsuit claimed they actually laid off only 215 miners, less than the one-third threshold. The UMWA is seeking 60 days back pay for the laid-off miners and fines of $500 per day until Drummond furnishes the proper notification.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home