For years, the two UMWA locals have been locked in battle with Murray over jobs, safety issues, and union rights. Murray is the largest independent coal operator in the United States. Seven of his nine mines are nonunion.

In a related development, the UMWA staged a protest September 4 outside Black Beauty Coal's Francisco mine near Oakland City, Indiana. Peabody Energy, the largest coal company, owns about 82 percent of Black Beauty. The Evansville-based Black Beauty employs about 1,100 coal miners in Indiana and southern Illinois and is Indiana's largest coal producer and the largest supplier of coal to the state's utility companies. It also has two mines in Kentucky, according to the union.

The protest was designed to "rekindle" organizing drives at more than two dozen Black Beauty mines. UMWA International president Cecil Roberts appealed to miners to join the union.

"Hundreds of Black Beauty miners lack a real pension as well as job security, lifetime health care, and other benefits that the UMWA provides to its members," said Roberts. Along with 11 other people Roberts was arrested for blocking a road during the protest at the mine. This is the third civil disobedience action the union leadership has organized over the past few months. The other two took place in front of Massey Energy's Elk Run mine in southern West Virginia, and outside Robert Murray's Galatia mine in Illinois.

Coal Week, an industry magazine, said in its September 10 issue that Black Beauty "has been a large thorn in the UMWA's side for years. As the company has grown over the past two decades from a small, nondescript company to the largest coal producer in Indiana, it has successfully deflected the union's organizing overtures. Now that Peabody Energy owns 83 percent, things may be changing."

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rulings against Murray come as a victory for the union. Murray had claimed the memorial days taken by UMWA members were used "unlawfully" for the purpose of organizing miners, which is a violation of labor law. Specifically it charged that the "memorial day" was designed to pressure Murray in connection with Murray's American Energy Corp., which operates a nonunion mine near Powhatan No. 6.

The NLRB ruled that its investigation "disclosed that the Union exercised its contractual right to declare memorial days" and that there is "insufficient evidence that the union invoked the contractual right to call memorial days for an unlawful purpose." According to a September 4 UMWA press release, the Pennsylvania NLRB's statement "disclosed substantial evidence to support the Union's assertion that it has significant disputes with Maple Creek over job security, which are primary in nature" and that there was "a reasonable basis for the union to question whether Maple Creek intended to honor its commitment as to the High Quality Mine."

In response to the decision, UMWA secretary-treasurer Carlo Tarley said the NLRB "obviously agreed that the union has the right by contract to call up to 10 memorial days at mines where workers enjoy UMWA representation. There was never any question in our mind that our actions were legitimate and legal."

In the aftermath of the two memorial days, the union announced a new public "awareness campaign" August 27, which will include posting full-page ads, posting billboards along major thoroughfares in both Ohio and Pennsylvania, and press statements.

The union is also planning "more community actions this fall to highlight its dispute with Murray."

Frank Forrestal is an underground coal miner and a member of United Mine Workers of America Local 1248.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home