Published: July 29, 2021 | Share This

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Hundreds of Alabama coal miners traveled by bus to New York City to demonstrate outside the headquarters of multinational investment management firm BlackRock, it was reported Wednesday.

The protest was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), involving their union members from Alabama’s Warrior Met Coal who have been on strike against the company since April 1.

The protest reportedly drew over 1,000 people, including union members from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, as well as actress Susan Sarandon

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and the largest shareholder in Warrior Met Coal.

“Do you hear that BlackRock? Get us a fair contract and we’ll go away. We’ll go back to work in those coal mines where we should be,” one of the speakers at the rally said.

“We rode up here on buses to tell you your investments need to be put to use in these guy’s salaries, in these guy’s benefits, these guys that have earned you the profits that you’re making from these coal mines,” the speaker said.

The union members say they made concessions in pay, benefits, holidays, overtime and in other areas that totaled upwards of $1.1 billion after their previous employer Walter Energy filed for bankruptcy in 2016. Warrior Met Coal would end up purchasing the company’s assets.

“We’re in New York City because we are simply following the money, and demanding that those who created that wealth, the miners, get their fair share of it,” UNMA President Cecil E. Roberts said.

BlackRock has also drawn attention for buying up single-family houses all over the country, pricing middle-class buyers out of the housing market.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. officials also reportedly discussed economic recovery plans with BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink multiple times even as the company valued at roughly $130 billion stood to benefit.

Source: Daily Caller

About Warrior Met Coal
Warrior Met Coal is a U.S.-based, environmentally and socially minded supplier to the global steel industry. It is dedicated entirely to mining non-thermal metallurgical (met) coal used as a critical component of steel production by metal manufacturers in Europe, South America and Asia. Warrior is a large-scale, low-cost producer and exporter of premium met coal, also known as hard coking coal (HCC), operating highly efficient longwall operations in its underground mines based in Alabama. The HCC that Warrior produces from the Blue Creek, AL, coal seam contains very low sulfur and has strong coking properties and is of a similar quality to coal referred to as the premium HCC produced in Australia. The premium nature of Warrior’s HCC makes it ideally suited as a base feed coal for steel makers.

To stop by Warrior Met Coal’s website, CLICK HERE

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