Mine Workers and Supporters to Encircle Peabody HQ in Downtown St. Louis Tuesday

[Omaha Steve]

No link. Email.

M E D I A A D V I S O R Y

For Immediate Release – September 19, 2013
Contact: Roger Kerson, 734.645.0535, [e-mail]
Phil Smith: 571-345-8338; [e-mail]



Advisory for Tuesday, Sept. 24th @ 10 am

Mine Workers and Supporters to Encircle Peabody HQ in Downtown St. Louis

Union says retirees and dependents must receive health care benefits earned during decades of labor in company mines

St. Louis – Thousands of mine workers and supporters plan to march around the headquarters of Peabody Energy in St. Louis this coming Tuesday, Sept. 24th.

The event is the latest in a series of protests directed at the world’s largest private-sector coal company, which reported $90 million in net income in the second quarter of 2013. Peabody executives, however, are so far refusing to honor the company’s obligation to provide critically needed health care benefits for retired miners.



Who: Mine workers and supporters, including:

· Cecil Roberts, International President, UMWA

· Hugh McVey, President, Missouri AFL-CIO

· Terrence Melvin, President, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists

· Claude Cummings, Vice President, CWA District 6

· Rev. Jonathan Stratton, Episcopal Diocese of Missouri

What: March encircling Peabody Headquarters, calling for the company to honor its obligations to retired miners and their dependents.

When: Tuesday, September 24th, 10 am (Central Time)

Where: March to begin at Crowne Plaza Hotel, 200 N. Fourth Street.

Marchers will proceed on Pine St. to Broadway, to Market. Then on Market Street to circle around Peabody headquarters along Market, Eighth, Chestnut and Seventh Streets. Marchers will then proceed to Kiener Plaza for a rally.

“The Patriot Coal chapter of this fight is behind us, now it’s time for Peabody Energy and Arch Coal to meet their responsibilities,” said UMWA President Roberts. Last month, UWMA members approved a settlement with Patriot Coal, a company created by Peabody in 2007, which among other provisions established a mechanism for payment of health care benefits for retired miners. However, long-term funding for those benefits has not been secured.

The union also won a court ruling in August establishing Peabody’s continued obligations to 3,100 miners and dependents, whose benefits remained with Peabody at the time of the Patriot spinoff.

Arch Coal, another profitable company, dumped its retiree obligations into a company called Magnum Coal in 2005. Magnum was subsequently acquired by Patriot, which entered bankruptcy reorganization last year.

“This fight is anything but over,” said Roberts. “Executives of these companies have to understand that miners and their families know the real story of what happened here – and because of our efforts, so do millions of working people across the country. Men and women worked underground for decades to earn these benefits. These companies are profitable, and they must step up to meet their obligations to these retirees.”

The union’s ongoing effort to win full benefits for all affected retired miners includes a lawsuit against Peabody and Arch, filed in West Virginia; legislation in Congress to aid retired miners and their dependents, sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats; and an ongoing public education, advertising and community action campaign.

Additional information is available at FairnessAtPatriot.org.

###

[Scuba]

1. Kick

[TheDeputy]

2. Now let's protect the miners' jobs too.

New anti-coal regulations will kill jobs in West Virginia, Kentucky, and nationwide. Our government is supposed to be by and for the people. We need to speak up.