Published: April 5, 2021 | Share This

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After failing to reach an 11th-hour agreement with Warrior Met Coal Inc., more than 1,100 mine workers in Brookwood are now on strike.

That’s according to an update from the United Mine Workers of America, which on Wednesday threatened that its members would walk off the job over unfair labor practices if an agreement could not be reached with Warrior Met Coal.

“We hope that an agreement can be reached, but the company will need to move substantially from where it is now for the union to have reason to take something back to our members for potential ratification,” said union spokesman Phil Smith in the hours preceding the strike deadline.

It appears those efforts were unsuccessful, as miners took to the picket line Thursday night.

Warrior Met Coal said through a Birmingham-based public relations firm that it will continue to meet customer demands for its coal despite the strike.

“We have and will continue to work with the UMWA to reach a resolution,” the company said through Erin Vogt, director of public relations for PERITUS public relations.

“While we are disappointed that the UMWA has taken this extreme step to declare a strike while we continue to negotiate in good faith, we have continuity plans in place to continue meeting the demands of our key customers,” added Vogt.

UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said in a news release announcing the strike that the union had filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board relating to Warrior Met’s conduct during negotiations.

“Despite repeated attempts by our negotiating team to bridge the differences we have at the bargaining table, Warrior Met is going backwards. We have always been ready to reach a fair agreement that recognizes the sacrifices our members and their families made to keep this company alive,” Roberts said in the announcement.

“At this point, Warrior Met is not.”

Through Vogt, the company maintained that its negotiation position has been meant to protect the company as well as the long-term employment of its 1,400 or so workers.

She referenced a declining coal market as well as the global coronavirus pandemic as examples of industry conditions for which Warrior Met Coal is trying to remain prepared.

Through its current policies, Warrior Met Coal continued to operate despite these factors, positioning itself as an essential industry and protecting the livelihoods of its workers, the company said.

“Throughout negotiations, our sight has remained on the future — to provide our employees with a competitive package while protecting jobs and the longevity of the company and its workforce. History has shown that we must remain vigilant in preparing for the volatility of coal prices,” Vogt said.

Union officials said a strike would include the company’s No. 4 and No. 7 mines, a preparation plant and a central shop, all located in Tuscaloosa County, a union statement said. Workers sacrificed to bring the company out of the Walter Energy bankruptcy five years ago, UMWA President Cecil Roberts said in announcing the strike.

“These productive, professional miners at Warrior Met mined the coal that meant the company could become successful again,” Roberts said.

“And Warrior Met has capitalized on their hard work, earning tens of millions in profits for their Wall Street owners. They have even rewarded upper management with bonuses of up to $35,000 in recent weeks,” Roberts added.

Warrior Met Coal, which focuses primarily on the mining of nonthermal metallurgical coal for use in the steel production process by manufacturers in Europe, South America and Asia, was created following the 2015 bankruptcy of Jim Walter Resources and its parent company, Walter Energy.

That year, Walter Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, indicating it had around $3 billion in debt with its major holdings in the state being the Jim Walter Resources underground coal mines in Brookwood as well as the rights to unmined coal fields elsewhere in Tuscaloosa and neighboring counties.

In January 2016, the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama approved the sale of Walter Energy to Warrior Met Coal, then operating as Coal Acquisition LLC, which was formed by Walter Energy’s senior creditors during the bankruptcy proceedings.

Warrior Met Coal went on to hire more than 1,000 miners in 18 months, including 350 hourly miners and 150 salaried employees for a new, $19 million portal facility on the company’s No. 7 mine, and last year the company announced another 350 new jobs with an investment of more than $500 million with plans to construct and develop a new underground coal mining facility off Brandon School Road in north Tuscaloosa County.

Warrior Met recently reported a loss of about $35 million for last year compared to net income of $302 million for 2019. Citing uncertainty created by the global pandemic, the company did not release financial guidance for 2021.

The union spokesman said the global market for metallurgical coal is “rebounding” from the pandemic.

“We continue to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 and these other potentially disruptive factors on our business, although we believe that it is premature to speculate on when the economies of the countries in which our customers are located will reopen on a sustained basis and return to normal demand,” the company said in a statement in February.

Source: The Associated Press

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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