Mine Workers Reach Tentative Agreement with Patriot Coal, Fight for Fairness for 23,000 Retirees Goe

CWA activists support UMWA familes at a St. Louis rally.

Below: St. Louis Labor Council Vice President John Ebeling throws CWA's support behind mine workers.

The United Mine Workers reached a tentative settlement with bankrupt Patriot Coal on new terms and conditions of employment covering 1,800 active or laid off miners in West Virginia and Kentucky. The settlement makes big improvements over what federal Bankruptcy Judge Kathy Surratt-States ordered on May 29, and what Patriot implemented on July 1, the UMWA said.

"After several weeks of nearly around-the-clock negotiations, I believe we have reached something that can be taken to the membership for ratification," UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts said. "We have been able to restore, or at least improve upon, many of the most drastic changes that the Judge ordered, including in the area of wages, health care benefits, paid time off, pensions, and more. In addition, we have negotiated a mechanism that will allow retiree health care benefits to continue."

Workers will vote on the tentative settlement on Aug. 16.

The campaign against Peabody Energy and Arch Coal continues, however. On Tuesday, UMWA families and allies rallied in front of Peabody Energy's corporate headquarters in St. Louis. John Ebeling, vice president of the St. Louis Central Labor Council and print and media sector vice president of CWA Local 6300, said, "the fight will go on and on until there is victory."

"I salute every one of you for the sacrifices you make to keep this fight alive!" he told the crowd. "Peabody owes these brothers and sisters $1.3 billion. They have given out more than $1.3 billion in bonuses in the last few years."

Watch a clip from Ebeling's speech here.

In a classic example of corporate greed and despite its profitability, Peabody created Patriot Coal in 2007 and gave that company 11 percent of its assets, 43 percent of its retiree liability and some underwater coal contracts, the UMWA said. The overwhelming majority, some 90 percent, of retirees whose retiree health care will be slashed never worked for Patriot. Then, in 2008, Patriot bought Arch-spinoff Magnum Coal, and Arch saddled that company with 12 percent of its assets and 96 percent of its retiree health-care liabilities.

CWA members have been a big part of the campaign, joining rallies in St. Louis, West Virginia and Kentucky to pressure Peabody Energy and Arch Coal to meet their responsibilities to retired miners and their families. CWAers in West Virginia have an especially strong partnership with UMWA miners who are standing up with CWA members in their contract fight at Frontier Communications.

"We're back at Peabody because that's where this problem started. Executives at Peabody Energy created Patriot, they failed to give it enough assets to meet its obligations, and we're not going to sit idly by and let miners and their families pay the price," Roberts said.

The bankruptcy ruling affected 23,000 retired miners and their families who face the loss of their health care benefits.