Published: August 5, 2021 |

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Organizers say about 2,000 people came to Brookwood Ballpark this morning — with miners traveling from at least seven states — to show support for about 1,100 striking miners in Tuscaloosa County.

The United Mine Workers of America staged a large scale rally for the miners, now in their fifth month on strike against Warrior Met Coal.

Buses from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia were parked at a nearby high school. Other unions were represented as well — from New Jersey longshoremen to flight attendants to municipal employees.

It was a festive scene, with music, inflatable playhouses for children, food, and video messages from other unions.

A 10-foot inflatable image of fabled union organizer Mother Jones, fist upraised, stood guard near a picnic area. There were so many people attending, the area ran out of parking places, so Jeff Fleenor, a Brookwood miner for the past 17 years, stood at the highway to direct cars to another lot.

Fleenor, like his fellow union members, has been striking since April 1 for better pay and benefits. He was working when the current agreement was negotiated as Warrior Met Coal emerged from the bankruptcy proceedings of the former Walter Energy, which declared bankruptcy in 2016.

Union members say they made numerous concessions in pay, benefits, holidays, overtime, and in other areas at that time to keep the company going and get it out of bankruptcy - concessions they say total more than $1.1 billion. The miners are demanding a new contract to restore some of those concessions.

“We want to win this contract. Part of the reason I came back to work then was to make sure they gave us something better when it was time,” said Fleenor.

Fleenor, like his coworkers, recounts with pride how their mine is one of the highest producing of its kind in Alabama. Warrior Met produces coal used in steel production in Asia, Europe, and South America.

The coal produced there can go to markets by river or train. It’s a “good set up,” Fleenor said. Yet, despite the up and down coal market, they don’t feel any benefit from their labor has been passed down to them.

Emanuel Burnfield is another union member who attended the rally. Burnfield, 35, lives in Pleasant Grove and has been a miner for 13 years. Last week, he was one of several members who traveled to New York to picket outside the offices of BlackRock, an investment management corporation that is the world’s largest asset manager. The union says BlackRock is the largest shareholder in Warrior Met Coal.

It was his first trip to New York, and left him a lasting image of tall buildings, Burnfield said, but he was gratified by the support he saw there for the strike. He called the stalled negotiations “corporate greed, plain and simple.”

“We’re not asking for much. All we want is our previous pay back and 100 percent of our health insurance,” Burnfield said.

Burnfield said his wife and three children are still making out well during the strike, but “it’s been plenty rough.” He said the prolonged strike has split up relationships and friendships and put stress on families. Some miners have crossed the picket line and gone back to work.

“They’ll forever be a scab in my eyes,” Burnfield said.

Phil Smith with the UMWA said today’s event was four weeks in the planning and began during the morning to avoid the hot, humid August sun. He described the mood of the miners as “disappointed but determined.” While talks continue, he said the company has not progressed further than its previous offer, a contract the union rejected two weeks into the strike.

“We’ve got to find a way to get this over and get back to work. We’re determined to stay as long as it takes,” Smith said.

Also among the crowd were Zack Stevey, president of UMWA Local 1638 in Marshall County, W.V., and his vice president Ryan Sparks. The two have been in Alabama for the past two months assisting with the strike. Stevey is a third-generation coal miner, while Sparks is the fourth generation of his family. While their families have history going back to previous strikes, neither of them have ever experienced a walkout as long as this back home, they said.

“They’re still strong,” Stevey said of the Alabama members. “These guys are still keeping the focus where it needs to be.”

“They’re not doing anything but getting stronger,” Sparks said.

Stevey and Sparks said they were impressed by the amount of support they’ve seen from the community for the miners — yard signs, bottles of water, food banks, cash contributions to keep families going.

Fleenor said the miners had a feeling, months before, that the contract talks might be contentious.

“I was doing odd jobs and wasn’t carrying a lot of debt,” Fleenor said.

“But the company was stockpiling coal, bringing concrete barriers in advance to put around the place. There were showing signs they weren’t going to negotiate,” Fleenor added.

Source: Al.com

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.

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