“We want our pay, but we want everyone — from West Virginia to Wyoming — to be paid,” former Blackjewel coal miner Jeff Willig told the press in Harlan County, Kentucky, Aug. 15. He had worked at the company’s Cloverlick…
DELTA, British Columbia — Over 150 day-shift workers, members of International Association of Machinists Local 11, walked off the job Aug. 1 to protest Avcorp’s concession demands. These include attacks on seniority rights and vacations, contracting out jobs, and no…
The following statement was released Aug. 21 by Amy Husk, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Kentucky. As workers learn about the unfolding fight of coal miners standing up to Blackjewel and the capitalist profit-seekers looking to take over…
CUMBERLAND, Ky. — Coal miners thrown out of work here by Blackjewel Coal when the company declared bankruptcy July 1 have been blocking the railroad tracks leading out of the Cloverlick #3 mine to protest the company bouncing their last…
VALPARAISO, Ind. — Chanting “2-4-6-8 why won’t you negotiate?” some 150 members of International Association of Machinists Local 2018 and their supporters rallied outside the Regal Beloit factory here Aug. 2. The unionists went on strike June 30, rejecting company…
DALLAS — “Bad insurance, lousy pay. This is how your food is made!” chanted airline food workers outside the airport’s Terminal D here Aug. 1. The workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 23, have been picketing twice a week to…
SAINT-MATHIEU-DE-BELOEIL, Quebec — Angered by the bosses’ demand for concessions at the Galvano plating plant here, members of United Steelworkers Local 9414 overwhelmingly rejected the company’s final contract offer and went on strike July 9. The 35 unionists employed there…
Dozens of miners and their families have set up camp on rail tracks near Cumberland, Kentucky, to block trains hauling coal from the Cloverlick #3 Mine. They’re protesting the refusal of Blackjewel Coal Co, which declared bankruptcy July 1, to…
As competition for markets among bosses in airline, auto and other industries continues to sharpen, company chiefs say they are looking to “cut labor costs,” targeting workers for concessions and weakening union rights. Contract talks opened in mid-July between the…
Coal miners in the U.S. are facing the biggest rise in the debilitating black lung disease in decades as mine bosses drive to speed up production and reduce the number of unionized mines to maximize their profits. In Appalachia, one…
