Union Rallies Outside Patriot Coal Over Pension Benefits
Source: ABC News
By JONATHAN MATTISE
Busloads of United Mine Workers of America miners and retirees roared in protest outside Patriot Coal headquarters Monday, as the bankrupt company looks to nix a union contract that includes pension contributions and health benefits.
From a makeshift stage on the bed of a tow truck, UMWA President Cecil Roberts bellowed out to a camouflage-clad crowd of 1,500 to 1,800 miners and led them in a march to nearby Patriot headquarters. UMWA packed twenty-two buses of miners from Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, according to union spokesman Phil Smith.
"If you think that this crowd is big, you try to mine one lump of coal without us," Roberts shouted to union miners. "We won't just stand in front of your offices. We'll stand in front of your coal mines. We'll stand in front of your cleaning plants. We'll block the roads and nobody will have a job."
Roberts told the crowd he would go to jail for trespassing on Patriot property, like he and 15 others did at Patriot's Charleston office in a 2013 rally over similar benefits issues during the company's previous bankruptcy.
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