From Workers Independent News, 3.28.13, by Doug Cunningham
The United Mine Workers of America are fighting hard against an effort by Peabody Coal to destroy pension and health care for retired miners and their families. The UMWA says Peabody spun off a company called Patriot Coal and set it up to fail so bankruptcy could be filed, allowing the company to shed $1.6 billion in promised pension and health care for retired miners. The UMWA is planning a protest Monday at Patriot Coal’s Charleston, West Virginia offices. UMWA President Cecil Roberts.
[Cecil Roberts]: “This may be legally correct. It’s morally corrupt. And we’re gonna find out if the United States government, state governments, the court systems believe it’s all right for corporations to be morally corrupt and to do their workers and their retirees and their widows like this.”
Taken from a UMWA video, here are union miners, relatives and UMWA leaders talking about the fight for fairness at Patriot Coal.
[UMWA Audio]: “These men worked and my husband worked so that you could have a company and you could make your millions of dollars. Why just discard them and throw them away? And that’s exactly what you’re doin’. It’s like you’re opening up a trash can and dumpin’ them in the trash. And I can’t see doing people like that.
And just to take me and put me over here and then put my benefits in jeopardy. It’s no good.
How can they sit there with a clear conscience and do this to the people that made them the number one coal producer in the world. It’s immoral, it’s wrong. And there’s going to be a day of reckoning. And it’s comin’ soon.
Until I die I will fight, I will do anything this union asks me to do. The state may end up havin’ to pay for my medical coverage if I end up in jail. If that’s what it takes,that’s what it takes.
We’ve got some fighters in this union and I think they’re gonna fight it. And I think we’re gonna win it.”
Published March 29th, 2013Like this post? Consider sharing it on
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