united mine workers
April 11, 2023 -
Facing South recently spoke with Larry Spencer, an official in the United Mine Workers district that represents the over 1,000 miners who unsuccessfully struck against Warrior Met Coal in Alabama for almost two years. He discussed conditions for the returning miners, relations between the long-time workers and the scabs who replaced them, and how the union — now facing a decertification petition — is challenging the company's refusal to take back 41 strikers, many of them union officials.
April 20, 2022 -
This month marks one year since 1,100 members of the United Mine Workers of America went on strike at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, Alabama — a company that was formed from the bankruptcy of Walter Energy and that's now owned by hedge funds. A recent U.S. Senate hearing focusing on Wall Street greed featured testimony from striking Warrior Met miner Braxton Wright calling for passage of the Stop Wall Street Looting Act.
August 27, 2021 -
This Labor Day weekend, people will gather in West Virginia to mark the centennial of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. We look at what led to the bloody battle — when 10,000 Black, white, and immigrant coal miners joined together to fight for union rights against coal companies allied with corrupt law enforcement — and how it's being commemorated.
October 28, 2015 -
Peabody Energy, the nation's largest coal company, is seeking release from a pledge to pay into a health insurance fund. Will taxpayers have to pick up the tab?
September 1, 2015 -
Fossil-fuel apologists have accused the Obama administration of waging a war on coal, but the real war is the one coal companies have for years carried out against the health and safety of their workforce.
October 15, 2012 -
In the hope that we are seeing a major turning point in the relationship between Wal-Mart and its workforce, it is worth looking back at the company's record to recall just how bad its behavior has been.
July 21, 2011 -
By Joe Atkins, Labor South
