The meetings, sponsored by the UMWA, were launched September 7 in Bessemer, Alabama, to put a spotlight on a looming crisis in the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act (Coal Act), which was supposed to shore up depleted funds needed to cover coal miners' lifetime health benefits. The Coal Act, also known as the so-called Rockefeller bill, was signed into law by former President George Bush in 1992.
Following the meeting in Bessemer, which drew some 1,700 retired miners, another 1,400 attended a meeting in Charleston, West Virginia on September 8, and 1,200 retired miners went to a meeting in Evansville, Indiana. The final meeting was attended by miners and retirees from the western coalfields in Price, Utah.
The Coal Act requires all companies that ever signed a UMWA contract — reaching back 30 years — to pay lifetime health benefits to their retirees. Since passage of the 1992 legislation, there have been more than 60 challenges to it in court by the coal companies.
The UMWA maintains the Combined Benefit Fund (CBF), which was established under the Coal Act and provides benefits for about 70,000 retired miners and their families. It is the largest of five pension and benefit funds run by the union. About 23,00 people in West Virginia and 15,500 in Pennsylvania rely on the CBF, and smaller numbers in 18 other states, according to union figures. Widows of miners make up a large percentage, and the average age is about 78 years.
The CBF is funded by some 300 coal operatives, both current and former coal bosses, and pays out an estimated $31 million a month. Today the fund is in the red nearly $50 million and over the next five years the deficit is projected to be in excess of $250 million. According to a union fact sheet, "Unless more money is made available, the beneficiaries will be faced with disastrous benefit cuts that will imperil their health."
This crisis was brought home by a handout given to miners are they entered the Uniontown meeting. It said, in part, "Some hospitals have been aggressive in sending balance bills to beneficiaries, using collection agencies and taking beneficiaries to court."
There have been three important court rulings against the union. In 1995, an Alabama court upheld a claim by coal companies who challenged the annual health care premiums they were required to pay each of their retirees. The court ruled in their favor and reduced all coal operators' contributions by almost 10 percent. In another ruling in 1999, the same Alabama court ordered the CBF to return $40 million in contributions to the coal bosses.
The biggest blow came in 1998 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Eastern Enterprises, one of the so-called "reach back" companies, was not required to make premium payments to the CBF. The company argued that it had stopped its mining business in 1966 and was thus not liable. Challenging this assertion, the union says that Eastern transferred coal operations to a subsidiary, Eastern Associated Coal Corp., until it was sold off in 1987. This decision by the highest court in the country was hailed as a "tremendous victory" by the coal companies. Until this decision, Eastern had been responsible for providing health benefits to 1,500 retired coal miners and their wives.
Eastern is now a subsidiary of Peabody Coal Group of St. Louis, the largest coal producer in the United States. Eastern was hit by a two-day wildcat strike in 1995.
The U.S. Supreme Court said the Coal Act violated the fifth amendment's ban on "taking" private property for public use without paying just compensation. "Needless to say, this ruling opened the floodgates for other operators who left the coal industry before 1974 to contest their payments to the CBF," said a Sept. 2, 1999, UMWA press release. One such company is the steel giant LTV, which has a $145 million liability.
"Attitudes never change," said retired miner Henry Knight, who is recovering from open-heart surgery. "They tried to take this away from us since the day it was created." Knight, who worked in the mines for 38 years, is afraid he will lose his coverage. His view was echoed by many retired miners at the Uniontown meeting.
Speaking in front of a large banner, "Keep the Promise, Save the Coal Act," UMWA president Cecil Roberts gave the keynote address. Emphasizing that miners were "promised cradle to grave health coverage" by former president Harry Truman in 1946 for returning to work after a strike, Roberts said miners need "to make the government keep their promise." During his presentation, Roberts asked how many miners in the audience participated in the 1946 strike. A wave of hands shot up in response. Many of the miners started working in the mines in their teens, some putting in 40 or 50 years.
These veteran miners knew first hand what the conditions were like in the 1940s — a time when, according to the Bureau of Mines, each year mining accidents led to an average of 1,120 fatalities and 50,300 injuries. It was a time when there was no federal government regulation of the health and safety in the mines. Medical facilities were terribly inadequate. Miners received minimal health coverage, and the sanitary conditions were the worst in the nation. It was a time of the company doctor, the company store, and the company house.
When coal bosses refused to fund union health-care benefits in 1946, the union carried out a nationwide strike. After declaring a government takeover of the mines, Truman ordered the miners back to work. They refused until Truman backed down and agreed to endorse the miners' demand for lifetime health benefits. "You can't dig coal with bayonets" was a common refrain of miners at that time. It took another two years of struggle, including a strike in 1948, before the pension plan was implemented. It was only then that the first miner received a check from the new health and welfare fund.
Included in the 1946 UMWA contract was the demand that the government make a study of health conditions in the coalfield communities. The U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine, headed by Rear Admiral Joel Boone, was assigned to conduct the study. The "Boone Report" was published in 1947 and its findings shocked people across the country.
Once word got out that the miners had won health benefits, miners who had been severely injured in mine accidents wrote letters asking for help from the new UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund. As a result, thousands of debilitated miners were taken to hospitals throughout the country. Many of these miners had not received medical care for up to 20 years and were bedridden under the care of friends and family. According to one government report, "Ninety-seven thousand disabled miners had received medical and rehabilitative help through this program by the end of 1955. Of those, almost 23,000 were able to reenter the work force — some returned to mining and other forms of employment."
The health-care system miners have fought for and defended since 1946 is widely supported in the coalfields. Having a UMWA health card is a matter of pride. It directly affects coal miners' families, retired miners, and the larger coal mining community. In addition, it has benefited nonunion miners who have, in many cases, a health plan similar to that of the UMWA. And medical facilities in many rural areas would be unable to continue without the funds for services covered under the UMWA health plan.
"Neglect" was the word that best summarized the social conditions of the coalfields through the 1940s. For many years the only medical care available was provided by the company doctor. There was a complete lack of specialized care, medical equipment, and medical facilities. Improved health care came about largely because of the efforts of rank and file miners and their union.
One situation miners took direct initiative to change was the lack of health clinics near underground portals. Too often a miner was injured underground, and after being brought to the surface lay for hours before receiving treatment. Miners stood by waiting helplessly, not being able to help their comrade. With most mines in rural areas, hospitals were often long distances away.
This unacceptable situation led miners in some coalfield communities to lead fund-raising efforts — countless rummage sales, hot dog stands, and bingo games — to lay the foundations for building health facilities near the mines. In addition, many miners took out personal loans and were successful, in many cases, in getting local government and federal loans.
Roberts pointed to the Pittston strike as a key turning point. Anyone who questions the union's resolve on this issue should review the union's strike against Pittston Coal Group, which refused to pay into the health and benefits fund, said Roberts. In 1989-90, some 1,900 UMWA members fought an 11-month strike battle against Pittston. Over the course of the strike another 40,000 UMWA members throughout the coalfields walked out in support for up to six weeks. More than 50,000 supporters from across the country and around the world visited the union's strike center, Camp Solidarity, in southwest Virginia. Although the union pushed Pittston back with their strike victory, the strike has not stemmed the continued onslaught by the coal bosses since then.
The union president urged UMWA retirees to lobby Congress for a union plan that calls for dipping into a federal trust plan — meant to pay for abandoned strip mines cleanup — to shore up the health care system. In essence, this would involve shifting about $240 million in interest to the CBF. The union also proposes to concede to the "reachback employers" a "10 percent greater reduction differential than signatory employers." Roberts also raised the idea for a coal miners march and protest in Washington, D.C., although nothing concrete was proposed.
Many of the unfolding union fights, as well as recent strikers, have centered around the issue of health care and pensions. For example, the four-month UMWA strike by 350 miners in 1998 against Freeman United Coal Co. in Illinois approved a contract with a health plan that allows Freeman to contribute directly to the miners who then can purchase their own health plan. This means that the company no longer contributes to the UMWA's national health-care fund for future retirees. Health care was also a central issue in UMWA strikes at the Jeddo Coal Co. in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, and the Deserado mine in Rangely, Colorado, that both ended earlier this year.
Many of the miners who came to the Uniontown meeting realize that a fight will need to be organized to keep their benefits. Although older in age the determination of many of the retired miners is striking. Suffering from black lung, William Maroney, who worked 51 years at Republic Steel mine, was one of these miners. With the help of a walker and pulling an oxygen tank on wheels, the 82-year-old worker said he will be there if there is a fight. "It won't be the first time," he said.
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