[Miners in Alabama went on strike in April 2021 after the company
hit them with wage and benefit cuts. A year and a half later, with the
company continuing to post record profits, the miners and their
families are still on strike — and still refusing to back down. ]
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AFTER 18 MONTHS, STRIKING WARRIOR MET MINERS AND FAMILIES HOLD THE
LINE  
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Ericka Wills
October 7, 2022
Labor Notes
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_ Miners in Alabama went on strike in April 2021 after the company
hit them with wage and benefit cuts. A year and a half later, with the
company continuing to post record profits, the miners and their
families are still on strike — and still refusing to back down. _

The annual Miners' Memorial Service in Brookwood, Alabama, was held
in September. The service honors the 13 miners who died in a series of
explosions at Jim Walter Resources Mine No. 5 on September 23, 2001.
Today that mine is part of Warrior Met Coal, t., Ericka Wills

 

A somber bell toll broke the silence outside the West Brookwood Church
in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The white-gloved hand of Larry Spencer,
international vice president of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
District 20, solemnly struck the miners’ memorial bell as the names
of victims of mine-related deaths were read aloud.

“As we gather this evening for our service, it is appropriate that
we remember in the past twelve months over 2021 and 2022 there has
been tremendous heartache as the result of mining accidents across
this country,” Thomas Wilson, a retired UMWA staff representative,
announced from the podium. “Twelve coal miners’ lives have been
snuffed out — also, nineteen metal and nonmetal miners — for a
total of thirty-one fallen miners since we last gathered.”

The annual Miners’ Memorial Service commemorates not only those who
left for work in the mines over the past year never to come home
again; it also honors the thirteen men who died in a series of
explosions in Jim Walter Resources Mine No. 5 in Brookwood on
September 23, 2001. Standing on the front lawn of the church in the
shadows of mine tipples, families reminisced about gathering at the
same location on that fateful day in September when they anxiously
waited to hear if their loved ones had survived the blasts.

In 2001, the No. 5 mine was owned by Walter Energy. Today it is part
of Warrior Met Coal, the company at the center of the UMWA’s 550-day
strike, the longest and largest ongoing strike in the United States.
As strikers, families, and community members gathered to remember the
fallen miners, all were reminded that what is at stake in the Warrior
Met strike is, literally, life and death.

Miners Resist Call to Settle

“One of the United Mine Workers’ goals is to make sure that you
have a safe place to work and that you come home to be with your
family,” Spencer explained before the ceremony. “We are ready to
go back to work at Warrior Met, but we aren’t going to roll over and
let things like this [explosion] happen again. So we are going to stay
strong and continue to fight.”

The Warrior Met strike epitomizes the imbalance of power between Wall
Street and workers in the United States. Currently, these nine hundred
miners are confronting the trillion-dollar assets of Wall Street funds
that own the company.

In 2016, after Walter Energy filed for bankruptcy protection, the
union agreed to temporary 20 percent wage and benefit cuts until
profitability could be achieved by the newly formed entity (Warrior
Met) assembled by private equity firms including Apollo Global
Management, Blackstone, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

Since Warrior Met went public in 2017, it has returned over $1.4
billion
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in dividends to shareholders. By 2019, the original equity firms had
sold their shares to a new group of Wall Street investment funds.
BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity, and State Street are currently the
company’s largest shareholders
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Warrior Met continues to report record profits, including $297 million
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in the second quarter of 2022, signifying the company’s financial
ability to address workers’ economic demands. Nonetheless, the
striking miners have yet to see a reverse in wage and benefit cuts —
which prompted them to launch their strike in April 2021.

With Warrior Met serving as a revenue machine for investment and asset
management firms, UMWA has had to strategize a ground game that not
only targets the Warrior Met Coal facilities in Alabama but also these
global Wall Street funds. Throughout the strike, BlackRock has
generally held the largest number of shares, fluctuating between 13
and 14 percent [[link removed]]. For
nearly a year, UMWA took their fight to BlackRock’s Manhattan
headquarters
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as well as expanding actions nationally
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to the investment fund’s offices in Washington, DC, Denver, and
Boston.

In April, a year after the strike began, BlackRock finally issued a
statement
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calling for a labor agreement and questioning Warrior Met
executives’ choices in protracting the strike.

“Prolonged operational disruptions, such as labor disputes, can have
a negative impact on a company’s financial performance and business
resilience. We believe it is in the best economic interests of our
clients for Warrior Met Coal and the UMWA to reach a resolution,”
BlackRock wrote in a bulletin explaining why it was voting against the
reelection of two top Warrior Met board members and the board’s
executive compensation proposal. “We don’t believe key executives
should be rewarded when the company has been impacted negatively by
the ongoing labor dispute and related fall in production.”

While BlackRock’s statement represents a significant victory for the
Mine Workers’ campaign at the Wall Street firm, it has yet to result
in a resolution to the strike. As Phil Smith, UMWA chief of staff and
executive assistant to the president, explains, this raises new
questions: “Who is the Warrior Met Board of Directors accountable
to? Clearly it isn’t their largest shareholder.”

Despite the advice of BlackRock, key Warrior Met executives continue
to reap financial rewards while workers and their families are
struggling to keep fed, clothed, and housed — and conscious that
another holiday season on strike draws ever closer.

The Auxiliary Looks to the Future

Cheri Goodwin and Haeden Wright, working wives of striking miners and
mothers of young children, were founding members of the UMWA Auxiliary
in Brookwood that formed quickly after the strike began.

While strikers’ families picked up grocery sacks at the Auxiliary
pantry and members sorted food contributions, Goodwin’s little
daughter skipped past as her mother and I chatted. In the middle of
the bustle, Goodwin’s calm voice of reason demonstrated how mutual
support has helped the women create such a successful Auxiliary.

“You have to show each other grace because it is hard. This is the
hardest two years I have ever had, including when I lost my brother.
It is demanding. You put so much of yourself into it, and no one
realizes how many hours you put in — how much time, effort, and
emotions,” Goodwin said. “So we all have to take a breath
sometimes and be there for each other when it gets hard.”

The longer the strike continues, the more challenges the families
face.

“We are all tight,” Goodwin admitted. “Insurance isn’t great.
We are trying to balance doing this appointment and not that — going
to the doctor but not going to the dentist. You have all your normal
stressors, then you have your financial stress because you’re on
strike, and you have mom-guilt of a year and a half of your kids’
lives happening during this all.”

Wright, whose young daughter also played around the Auxiliary as we
spoke, serves as president of UMWA Auxiliary Locals 2368 and 2245. She
is a full-time high school teacher, and I suspect her classroom
management skills have helped in methodically organizing a successful
Auxiliary to sustain a long-term strike. “The reason we didn’t
have deodorant tonight to give to people and the reason we don’t
have dish soap or laundry detergent anymore is that we know people
need those things, but those donations are needed to the Auxiliary.
You have to have a budget. When funds are low, food is more vital,”
Wright explained.

Even as they are always trying to meet the immediate needs of the food
pantry, including procuring hygiene items that can be contributed
through an online register
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Wright and Goodwin emphasized that they also have to look ahead to
preparing for another holiday season on strike.

“The Christmas registry is huge for the kids. With Solidarity Santa,
our membership fills out forms, and we create a registry to make sure
kids get gifts. We use and appreciate everything,” Wright affirmed.
(Check out the UMWA Auxiliary’s Solidarity Santa registry at Target
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and Walmart
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to help support striking families this holiday season.)

National Headlines

In Brookwood, where the hardships of an eighteen-month strike and
memories of loved ones lost in mine tragedies can weigh heavily on
UMWA members and families, the union has held weekly or biweekly
rallies to share information and raise spirits since the beginning of
the strike.

In the last few weeks, UMWA’s unwavering commitment to its members,
their families, and the larger labor movement has not only been
reaffirmed at these rallies but also made national headlines.

On August 3, national news outlets ranging from _ABC_ to _Bloomberg_
reported that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 10
ordered the United Mine Workers to pay $13.3 million in strike-related
damages to Warrior Met Coal, an amount that was nearly thirty-three
times higher than initial estimates
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This amount included the company’s “lost revenue
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from the strike, a calculation that ostensibly violated workers’
right to inflict economic damages in a legal strike, as defined under
Section 13 of the National Labor Relations Act.

UMWA President Cecil Roberts issued an unambiguous statement
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that the UMWA would not allow this judgment to stand because it
jeopardized the right of unions to strike.

“What is the purpose of a strike if not to impact the operations of
the employer, including production?” Roberts asked. “Is it now the
policy of the federal government that unions be required to pay a
company’s losses as a consequence of their members exercising their
rights as working people? This is outrageous and effectively negates
workers’ right to strike. It cannot stand.”

Only weeks later, in a victory not only for the UMWA but for the right
of all union workers across the United States to strike, NLRB Region
10 recalculated and reduced the amount to $435,000 plus interest,
removing costs of lost company revenue due to the strike.

As Roberts had done at each rally in September, he reiterated that
Warrior Met can’t fire workers without due process, referring to a
list that Warrior Met gave the union with the names of forty members
who the company said it would not allow to return after a contract was
reached. Roberts explained, “Where I come from, if they don’t let
you go back to work, you are fired,” and that was not something that
the UMWA would allow.

Striking miner Braxton Wright (Haeden’s husband) explained that the
list included the “union leadership; they picked the presidents of
every local and put them on the list” along with other union
activists.

UMWA President Cecil Roberts issued an unambiguous statement
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that the UMWA would not allow this judgment to stand because it
jeopardized the right of unions to strike.

“What is the purpose of a strike if not to impact the operations of
the employer, including production?” Roberts asked. “Is it now the
policy of the federal government that unions be required to pay a
company’s losses as a consequence of their members exercising their
rights as working people? This is outrageous and effectively negates
workers’ right to strike. It cannot stand.”

Only weeks later, in a victory not only for the UMWA but for the right
of all union workers across the United States to strike, NLRB Region
10 recalculated and reduced the amount to $435,000 plus interest,
removing costs of lost company revenue due to the strike.

As Roberts had done at each rally in September, he reiterated that
Warrior Met can’t fire workers without due process, referring to a
list that Warrior Met gave the union with the names of forty members
who the company said it would not allow to return after a contract was
reached. Roberts explained, “Where I come from, if they don’t let
you go back to work, you are fired,” and that was not something that
the UMWA would allow.

Striking miner Braxton Wright (Haeden’s husband) explained that the
list included the “union leadership; they picked the presidents of
every local and put them on the list” along with other union
activists.

==

_Ericka Wills is a professor at the University of Wisconsin School for
Workers [[link removed]]._

 

* Alabama Miners' Strike; UMWA District 20; Warrior Met Coal;
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