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   Vol. 67/No. 42           December 1, 2003  
 
 
U.S. coal giant demands takebacks
 
BY JAY RESSLER  
PITTSBURGH — Hundreds of coal miners, members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), were joined by dozens of union steelworkers in a march and rally in Ashland, Kentucky, November 6 at the offices of Horizon Natural Resources protesting the company’s drive to use federal bankruptcy proceedings to demand sweeping concessions from the union.

Horizon, the fourth-largest coal producer in the United States, filed for bankruptcy in November 2002. The company owns 42 mines, in Kentucky, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, and Colorado.

According to a statement released by the UMWA, the union “now believes that Horizon will ask the bankruptcy judge to reject outright the terms and conditions of the contract now in place, which under current law is a possibility.”

Horizon is seeking to cut health benefits along with other rollbacks that the union says would affect 1,000 active miners and 3,400 retired miners in five states. The proposal includes cuts to the benefits of UMWA retirees covered under the 1992 Coal Act; a federal statute that provides health and pension guarantees to miners.

“Horizon and the bankruptcy courts have no legal right to cut Coal Act retirees’ benefits,” said union president Cecil Roberts. “Congress established these benefits and… Horizon is not going to take them away.”

UMWA Local 5890 president Darrell Keyes, who works at Horizon’s Starfire Mine near Hazard, Kentucky, said mining families who used to pay nothing for health insurance would have to pay $178 a month, pay 30 percent of the costs, and face large deductibles, including on prescriptions. Keyes, who has worked at the mine for some 20 years, said he participated in the march along with 17 other members of his local to “counter the company’s crap—the steps it’s taking to gut the union contract.”

According to The Southern, other Horizon takeback demands include elimination of 22 vacation days; 24 days’ less pay; a wage freeze for the duration of the six-year contract; elimination of the union’s role in overseeing sick and accident benefits; straight time pay for Saturday, Sunday, and holiday work; and a no-strike clause.

“One thing is certain: Nobody can work under the contract they proposed,” said Jerry Don Walker, a miner who works for Horizon subsidiary Zeigler. “That’s like going back to the 1920s, where you have no days off and all past practice and customs is gone.”

The company will take its reorganization plan to court in Lexington, Kentucky, December 2. The union is planning another rally on that date.

Jay Ressler is an underground coal miner and a member of United Mine Workers of America Local 1248  
 
 
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