Vol. 80/No. 28      August 1, 2016

 
(front page)

Mine Workers call Sept. 8 rally to stop cuts in
retiree benefits

 
The United Mine Workers of America has called a national rally in Washington Sept. 8 demanding passage of the Miners Protection Act to prevent the cutting off of health care and pension benefits for retired coal miners and their spouses and dependents.

The union is organizing “dozens of buses to bring miners from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Ohio,” Phil Smith, UMWA Director of Government Affairs and Communications, told the Militant July 18. “Others will fly in from Utah and Colorado” for the 11 a.m. event at the U.S. Capitol.

Coal companies have increasingly used bankruptcy courts to get out of contract commitments to the UMWA Health and Retirement Funds. As a result, “23,000 retired miners will lose their health care if Congress does not act and 90,000 will lose their pensions,” Smith said. “Today there are 13 UMWA retirees for every working miner.”

About 3,500 active and retired UMWA members rallied in Lexington, Kentucky, June 14 calling for passage of the Miners Protection Act. “We’re not asking for welfare,” Michael Partin, a retired union member who worked underground for 30 years, told the Lexington Herald-Leader at the rally. “We’ve earned these benefits.”

“We’ve always had to fight for everything we got,” said George Massey, 63, who worked underground in Harlan County for 24 years before leaving due to leg injuries.

In 1946, following a nationwide strike of 400,000 coal miners, the UMWA wrested from the federal government the promise of lifetime health care for its membership. Through a levy on coal production, a health and welfare fund for miners was set up and administered by the union and the government. The legislation pending in Congress today would safeguard benefits for retirees from bankrupt companies.

Miners’ health care was one of the main issues in the 111-day nationwide strike in 1977-78. An 11-month strike by 1,900 miners at Pittston Coal in 1989 fought off that company’s attempts to deny medical benefits to its retired union members.
 
 
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