Facing health care cuts, UMWA rallies at Consol headquarters
Miners continue fight for benefits as company plans to exit coal business
Finished in 2008, the exterior of Consol Energy’s corporate offices in Cecil was designed to manifest the company’s legacy of coal mining dating back more than century — using tinted black windows, stone-gray balconies that create an industrial aesthetic.
On Wednesday, that served as an ironic backdrop for hundreds of miners and supporters who gathered to protest the company’s policies as it plans to exit the coal business by the end of this year.
The United Mine Workers of America called the scorching 90minute rally, held on a shadeless stretchof road in full view of Consol’s building, to grab attention for its legal battle over recent cuts made to unionretirees’ health care coverage.
Consol Energy executives did not engage with the crowd, issuing a statement defending the company’s business practices.
The protest ended with the arrest of Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, and Rich Fink, a longtime UMWA local president and former Armstrong County Commissioner. Both men led a march onto Consol property, sat on the ground and refused to get up. While they were
peacefully taken into police custody, the rest of the crowd dispersed.
The protest comes as the UMWA faces a host of challenges. A wave of coal company bankruptcies in recent years — amid competition from cheaper natural gas and more stringent environmental regulations — has threatened worker pensions and health care. UMWA pension funds are on pace to dry up within three years, and health benefits would have expired in December had Congress not approved a four-month extension.
The UMWA is intensely lobbying lawmakers to permanently fund retired union coal miners’ pensions and health care nationwide. The Miners Protection Act, sponsored in part by Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA, has faced opposition from Senate Republicans, who are pushing an alternative measure that would fund health care but does not address pension shortfall.
“We’ve been fighting this,” said Mr. Roberts, speaking from a stage erected in the middle of Town Center Boulevard. “[We’ve been] riding buses, standing in the snow, standing in the rain, standing in the hot heat in St. Louis, in Henderson, Kentucky, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in southwest Pennsylvania. We have taken this salvation show all across America.”
At Consol, according to the union, the company has moved away from providing full health care benefits through a health insurer to Medicare-eligible retirees. It replaced the group plan with a “fee-for-service” plan, or cash payments into employees’ healthcare savings accounts.
The company also told roughly 2,550 retired miners and dependents it reserved the right to terminate all benefits and payments in the future for any reason.
These changes, the union argued, were in violation of a contract collectively bargained in 2011.
“That’s not what they promised; that’s not what they committed to,” said Ed Yankovich, vice president for UMWA. His voice boomed through a stack of 18 speakers directed at Consol’s headquarters. “You built that building. You made them rich.”
In December, the UMWA filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia seeking a halt to the changes while it seeks grievance asking the company to stick to the bargained health care plan. In March, a judge issued an injunction pending the outcome of the grievance. Consol appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In response to the rally, Consol Energy issued a statement Wednesday defending its practices and criticizing the UMWA leadership for failing to prevent workers from losing benefits at other companies.
“While Consol Energy made the necessary decisions to effectively weather the industry downturn, which was caused in large part by the policies of the UMWA-supported Obama administration, the union stood idly by as company after company whose employees they represented filed for bankruptcy,” read the statement, sent by director of communications Brian Aiello.
“While the UMWA grandstands and looks to distract from their own poor decisions, Consol Energy will continue to work to always do the right things for its employees and to keep the company strong.”
While Consol has not filed for bankruptcy, its transition away from coal to focus on its natural gas drilling business has angered retirees.
In 2013, Consol sold five coal mines to Murray Energy. After the sale, Murray Energy told the retirees, who were non-union, it would be cutting their benefits after one year.
The move sparked the group Consol Retirees United for Our Rights to stage rallies, demanding Consol foot the bill for benefits.
Consol has maintained that the responsibility to pay retiree benefits lies with Murray Energy. It is currently trying to find a buyer for its last remaining mine complex, the Bailey Mine that underlies Greene County and Washington-counties.
At Wednesday’s rally, the union aimed for a show of solidarity. Phil Smith, a UMWA spokesman, said 20 buses arrived from other regions of the country. He pegged the crowd at about 1,500 people, a number the company disputed.
Union officials also said the AFL-CIO — a coalition of labor organizations — approved a motion in March to make its nationwide struggle to shore up retirement benefits for coal miners a top priority across the coalition of labor organizations.
That motion passed with the support of Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, who took the stage Wednedsay for the first time at a UMWA rally. Ms. Nelson said her union has a record of winning wage increases and stopping health care cuts from major airlines.
“You made sure we could be warm, you made sure this country would be powered, and you did it with your blood sweat and tears,” ehs said. “We’re not going to let our fellow workers fall behind. We’re going to bring them along and build them up.”