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Signature Sponsor
By Bob Niedbala
March 12, 2016 - The United Mine Workers held an informational picket Friday at the Cumberland Mine in Pennsylvania that union officials said was planned to show union “solidarity’ in current contract negotiations with Alpha Natural Resources and the union’s upcoming industrywide bargaining.
About 50 to 60 miners stood around a picket shack and burn barrel Friday monring, talking and sipping coffee, at the Cumberland Mine’s No. 6 Portal off Patterson Run Road in Whiteley Township.
“This is just to bring our guys together in solidarity and fellowship and to give everybody a chance to get to know each other,” said Donnie Samms, UMW regional director and international vice president at large.
Union miners from Murray Energy mines in District 31 in West Virginia had come to Greene County that morning to meet with fellow miners at Alpha’s Cumberland Mine and former Emerald Mine, Samms said.
The meeting was held in preparation for the coming talks with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association and, of more immediate concern, the current talks with Alpha.
“If there is a battle or a fight we have to take on – hopefully we won’t have to, but if we do – they (Alpha miners) will know they are not by themselves and vice versa with the Murray locals,” Samms said.
The UMW will be negotiating a master collective bargaining agreement this year for all UMW mines with the BCOA. The current contract, which expires Dec. 31, covers workers at six large Murray Energy longwall mines in District 31, Samms said.
The union also is now negotiating modifications to its contract with Alpha as part of the company’s bankruptcy filing. About 1,000 Alpha employees are covered by the contract at mines in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, according to a company bankruptcy petition filed Monday.
Ed Yankovich, international District 2 vice president, said the union is currently in “discovery” in regard to the talks.
The company presented a proposal in January that according to its court filing includes a number of concessions.
“We are continuing to ask for information in regard to the proposal to make a determination of its validity and to make a determination of what we should counterpropose,” Yankovich said.
“At this point in time, we are still not convinced the need for what they propose is valid,” he said.
According to the bankruptcy filing, Alpha is seeking modifications it said represents $63 million in annual cost savings and efficiencies.
The document indicates it will do this by modifying contracting and subcontracting requirements, wage reductions and shift modifications, elimination of the company’s contributions to retirement plans, including the 1974 Pension Plan and by certain health and welfare savings.
The company said in the filing it has been involved in negotiations to develop “sustainable and mutually agreeable” modifications to the contract. If an agreement can’t be reached, the company said, it will file a motion to void the contract under the bankruptcy code.
“Hopefully, we can come to an agreement,” Yankovich said. “If we can’t then it’s up to them, it’s their decision on what they going to do.”
Several of the miners at the picket site Friday were pleased with the turnout.
Tom McGary of Murray Energy’s Marshall County Mine said he was glad to be there. “It’s all about solidarity,” he said.
“We have to stand together. We’re all one as a union,” said Greg Shriver, a member of Cumberland Local 2300. “I’m glad to see all these guys get together.”
Earlier this week, Alpha filed a restructuring plan with the bankruptcy court that calls for selling its core assets, which include the Cumberland and Emerald mines and their coal reserves and the company’s Marcellus Shale natural gas business and leases in Greene County.
The process also includes a “stalking horse” bid of existing secure debt of $500 million which was presented by a group of the company’s first lien lenders. Unless a higher offer is received, the company will sell its core businesses to the lien lenders.
Unsold assets will become part of the reorganized Alpha, a company that will focus primarily on fulfilling the company’s environmental reclamation obligations, the company said. The plan is subject to bankruptcy court approval.
 Members of the United Mine Workers held an informational picket Friday at the Cumberland Mine to show union “solidarity’ in current contract talks with Alpha Natural Resources and the union’s upcoming industrywide bargaining. |
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