Production increased by 7.8 percent from 2001 to 2004 as a result of a combination of hiring expansion, equipment upgrading, and the intensification of labor. According to a survey conducted by the Gillette News-Record, employment increased 5.2 percent in the same period, going from 4,022 workers in to 4,230, which means labor productivity—the average annual amount of coal produced per worker—increased by 2.5 percent.

The News-Record said, “Though production at Campbell County area coal mines has continually increased over the last several years, employment figures have remained flat as a result of mergers, sharing employees companywide, transfers within a company, and larger equipment.”

Miners in the Powder River Basin produce 35 percent of the nation’s coal, almost all going to utility company power plants throughout the country. Wyoming produces about two-and-a-half times more coal than West Virginia, the state with the next highest coal production.

The coal bosses’ production drive is fueled by the increased demand and higher prices for coal worldwide. The Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana is one of the busiest mining and freight railroad operations in North America. In 2003 Peabody’s North Antelope mine shipped 80.1 million tons of coal on 7,220 coal trains—an average of 20 100-car trains per day. Because of the large coal deposits, methane gas, and oil, the region has been dubbed the “energy capital of the nation.”

Coal seams run 50 to 100 feet thick and lie close to the surface, making it about one-third as expensive to mine as underground operations elsewhere. While the hotter-burning bituminous coal mined in Appalachia sells for $29-$35 a ton, the plentiful sub-bituminous coal from the Powder River Basin sells for around $6-$8 per ton.

A series of mergers and buyouts in recent years has resulted in the consolidation of mining operations. Arch Coal, Inc. purchased Triton Coal, enabling its Black Thunder mine to merge with the neighboring North Rochelle mine. RAG Coal West sold its Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines to Foundation Coal. The massive coal resources in the area are concentrated into the hands of four companies: Arch Coal, Foundation Coal, Kennecott Energy, and Peabody Energy. These companies lease enormous tracts of land from the federal government at rock-bottom prices. At the end of 2004, Peabody’s subsidiary, Powder River Coal Co., agreed to pay $299 million for 324.6 million tons of coal on federal land. In all, the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming has leased more than 1.7 billion tons of coal in 2004 at an average of 76 cents per ton.

So far the coal companies have succeeded in keeping the union out of the mines.

In the 1970s, when the coal companies were just breaking ground in the Powder River Basin, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) organized most miners in other regions of the country.

The UMWA won a representation election at the Belle Ayr mine, the first major mine in the area, shortly after it opened in 1972. But in 1975, the coal bosses broke the union after a bitter several-months-long strike, using company goons and strikebreakers.

Keeping the mines nonunion has been a key element in the coal companies’ strategy to boost profits. Today, the 10 largest mines in the country are all in the Powder River Basin

The nearest UMWA mine in the area, the Decker mine, is in southeastern Montana, just north of Sheridan, Wyoming. Miners at the Decker and Big Horn mines waged a four-year-long strike in the late 1980s against the union-busting attempts of Kiewit Mining Group. The company used scabs, hired three private security firms to harass the strikers, and offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of individuals for “strike-related” acts. Despite their campaign, the bosses were unable to defeat the UMWA.

The mine bosses in the Powder River Basin have kept wages and benefits for permanent miners at a comparable rate or better than those in union mines, miners told Militant reporters.

Despite that, some miners complained about the rotating 12-hour shifts, and the unpaid 60-mile bus ride many have to make to get to work. The mine bosses have also been able to impose a seven-day work schedule that eliminates overtime pay for Saturday and Sunday.

Managers at the employment agencies Manpower and Adeco in Gillette said that hundreds of miners hired as temporary employees work for months and sometimes years for less wages and benefits before they are offered permanent positions.

Bob Samson is coal miner in Colorado.  
 
 
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