The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) announced that the memorial days were organized to commemorate the sacrifices made by miners at Murray's union mines and to protest the bosses' plans.

Mass membership meetings of Local 1248 at Maple Creek and Local 1810 at Powhatan No. 6 were held on the Memorial Days to lay out the union campaign and solicit workers' involvement. Turnout at both meetings was high, with 250 attending the Maple Creek meeting and 300 at Powhatan No. 6.

The UMWA said the memorial days and the membership meetings were the initial volley in a campaign to protest Murray's "abuse of hundreds of coal miners who have accepted frozen and reduced wages and made other sacrifices to keep the company's operations afloat." Murray "used those resources and the workers' goodwill to open nonunion mining companies in an attempt to limit their job security," the union stated.

UMWA international secretary-treasurer Carlo Tarley stated that Murray "says one thing and does something else. He maintains he wants to build a partnership, yet now it appears he wants to abandon the people who have been the biggest part of the relationship--his UMWA work force."

This year Murray has opened a nonunion operation called the Century Mine close to the Powhatan No. 6 portal. Both are in Ohio. Coal is already being produced from this new mine and Murray says he plans to get production up to an annual 5 million tons with the installation of a longwall mining machine.

Murray recently announced plans to open another longwall mine a few miles north of Powhatan No. 6. Work has also begun on a new longwall mine, near Maple Creek, that Murray is scheduled to open in 2003.

Maple Creek management replied to the union campaign with a press release that was picked up in the Observer-Reporter in Washington, Pennsylvania, and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. The statement charged Tarley and UMWA with "publishing deliberate lies" about Murray "in an effort to gain UMWA representation at unrelated companies where the employees apparently do not want them."

A letter sent to workers accused Tarley and the UMWA of "trying to use you to create trouble and distrust, and to organize this unrelated company in Ohio."

Maple Creek Mining Inc. also filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board accusing the UMWA of wrongly disrupting operations at Maple Creek to help organize an unrelated mine in Ohio. It also filed a $100 million lawsuit against Tarley.

Tarley stated that the union campaign at these mines is not "some kind of back door way to try and organize new workers. I'm not saying we don't believe every miner employed at a Murray operation shouldn't belong to the UMWA, but that's not what this campaign is about. This campaign is about fairness and justice for the workers who helped Mr. Murray build his business, and now, as his business expands, these same workers are being left behind. It's a kick in the teeth to them," Tarley said.

Last December members of UMWA Local 1248 at Maple Creek rejected, by a 335-10 vote, a company-proposed contract for Local 1248 members that covered both Maple Creek and the new mine Murray plans to open in Pennsylvania. The rejected agreement provided for an increase of 30 cents an hour each year of the contract period. Because of the wage concessions and wage freeze in place since Murray reopened Maple Creek in 1995, the pay received by workers at that mine lags almost $3 per hour behind the wage rates in the contract between the UMWA and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association.

After the December vote, Murray was quoted in the Uniontown Herald Standard as saying that union members "got greedy" and that "there are 500 people who will be in the unemployment line."

Murray is the largest independent, family-held coal producer in the United States. Besides the mines mentioned, he has coal operations in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, and West Virginia, and has investigated mining opportunities in Utah. Murray-owned mines produced more than 20 million tons of coal in 2000. At a recent government hearing in Washington, Murray said he expected "to be producing at least 30 million tons annually within the next three years."

Frank Forrestal and Tony Lane are members of UMWA Local 1248.
 
 
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