Vol.64/No.19 May 15, 2000
Miners to rally May 17 to defend health fund
BY JAMES VINCENT
PITTSBURGH—Thousands of miners from coal mining communities across the United States are gearing up for a May 17 noontime rally in Washington, D.C., called by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to defend lifetime health benefits.
The aim of the May 17 rally is to press Congress to pass legislation to shore up funding for one of the union's health funds, which provides lifetime health-care coverage to nearly 70,000 retirees and widows.
The Combined Benefit Fund (CBF) is the largest of five pension and benefit funds run by the union. Widows of miners make up a large percentage, and the average age is about 78 years. The union has issued a broad call in support of the rally. "All UMWA members—retired, laid-off, active and associate—are encouraged to attend," reports the March-April, 2000 issue of the United Mine Workers Journal. "You are also urged to bring along anyone else who supports preserving our pensioners' health care."
The union is fighting for passage of the "Coal Accountability and Retired Employee Act for the 21st century," or "CARE 21." According to an April 11 UMWA press release, the measure "would immediately transfer $172 million in Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund interest money to the UMWA's Combined Benefit Fund. The legislation would also ensure future funding as needed to the Fund."
The fight to defend miners' health-care legislation, also known as the Coal Act, was at the center of the recent 52nd Constitutional convention of the UMWA. "Defend the Coal Act. Keep the Promise" is the main campaign of the union. Cradle-to-grave health care benefits were won through a massive mobilization of coal miners in the late 1940s.
The union knows it will take a sustained fight to pass the legislation. Capitalist politicians from Wyoming are leading the charge against using funds from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund, calling it nothing less than a "bailout" of the union.
The rally is being built through the district and regional offices of the union. Buses will be organized from several locations throughout the Appalachian coalfields. Calls from retired miners manning phones at District offices are being made to individuals who participated in mass meetings organized by the union to defend the Coal Act last September. In all, some 7,000 miners, mostly retired UMWA members who had toiled in the mines for decades, attended meetings held around the country.
In the coal mines, a discussion has broken out over how working miners will be able to attend the rally. Right now coal miners are scheduled to work on May 17, a Wednesday, which is a regular working day. In the past few years, the coal bosses have organized coal production seven days a week and implemented six-day workweeks, with regular forced overtime and stricter attendance policies.
In some portals, sign-up sheets are being posted in the bathhouses for those who want to attend. Some miners plan to take the day off no matter what, while most hope the union will organize time off for those who want to get on the buses.
The UMWA is reaching out to the National Black Lung Clinics Association and the National Black Lung Association.
UMWA District 12, centered in southern Illinois, has chartered 13 buses and plans to fill about 700 seats. The buses will depart May 16.
The coal bosses have received a helping hand from several adverse court decisions. The biggest blow came in 1998 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Eastern Enterprises was not required to make premium payments to the CBF. Challenging this assertion, the union said Eastern transferred operations to a subsidiary, Eastern Associated Coal Corp., until it was sold off in 1987. Through the ruling, Eastern was let off the hook and 1,500 coal miners were left in the cold. Then in 1999 the courts ordered the union to pay back $40 million to several Alabama coal companies.
These decisions have opened the flood gates. Recently, a federal court in Pennsylvania ruled that the Berwind Corporation of Philadelphia "is not responsible for paying retroactive retire benefits," according to a news release from the National Mining Association, a pro-coal boss publication. "The ruling could help other coal companies limit payments to the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Combined Benefits Fund."
The CBF is funded by some 300 coal operators, both current and former, and pays out an estimated $31 million a month. Today the fund is in the red by nearly $50 million, and over the next five years the deficit is projected to be in excess of $250 million. A union fact sheet notes that "unless more money is made available, the beneficiaries will be faced with disastrous benefit cuts that will imperil their health."
Pressures on the fund are part of the reorganization and consolidation taking place in the coal industry, with the closing of "inefficient" mines and laying off of thousands of miners. This past year Pittston Co., for decades one of the largest coal producers, announced it is pulling out of the coal industry. Like other coal companies, Pittston is watching these court decisions closely to see if it can wiggle out of "legacy costs"—a coal boss term for paying lifetime benefits to coal miners.