Aug 23, 2016 3 min read

The United Mine Workers union is mobilizing for a rally in Washington, D.C., early next month to show support for the Miners Protection Act, a bill to preserve union health and pension funds adversely impacted by the recession and coal company bankruptcies.

Calls are being made to pensioners, meetings held with local unions and sign-up sheets prepared for the buses that will take supporters from Southwestern Pennsylvania to Washington Sept. 8 for a rally in support of passage of Senate Bill 1714.

“I can’t state how important this is,” said Ed Yankovich, UMW international District 2 vice president. “It’s crucial to the health care of those folks who worked for companies that went bankrupt (prior to Dec. 31).”

This includes retired miners for Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal and Walter Energy, Yankovich said. Though the union was able to negotiate agreements with these companies to continue to fund retiree health benefits, that funding is “very limited,” Yankovich said.

The fund providing health benefits for Alpha retirees and their families is projected to last until next August, Yankovich said. The fund for Patriot Coal miners, however, will run out of money by the end of this year.

The numerous bankruptcies in the coal industry have not only resulted in a threat to retiree health benefits but also have had an adverse impact on the union’s 1974 pension fund.

Bankruptcy judges have relieved coal companies of their pension obligations, resulting in fewer contributors to the pension plan, Yankovich said.

The plan, which provides pensions to 90,000 pensioners and covers future claims for an additional 16,000 miners, is expected to become insolvent within the next 10 years. The fund was almost fully funded prior to the 2008 recession, the union said.

Legislation proposed as a fix would use excess money in the Abandoned Mine Land fund to support the pension plan. It also would make retirees who lost health benefits because of company bankruptcies eligible for the 1993 benefit plan.

The union rally will be held in advance of a crucial vote on the bill by the Senate Finance Committee, Yankovich said. The committee is expected to vote on the bill Sept. 14.

“Hopefully, this rally will give us the support we need for Congress to act on this legislation,” he said.

The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. Meanwhile, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who sits on the finance committee, has not indicated whether he will support the bill and told a reporter last week during a Waynesburg campaign stop he has not yet had time to fully review it.

The union is calling the coming rally in Washington the “Keep the Promise Rally.”

It refers to the “promise” of lifetime pensions and health benefits to miners and their families first made in 1946 during negotiations between the UMW and the federal government, which had seized the nation’s coal mines to resolve long-running strikes. The provision was included in all subsequent union contracts.

The union hopes to have as many people as it can participate in the rally, Yankovich said. Buses are being scheduled to take supporters to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 8 from Carmichaels, Waynesburg and Uniontown, he said.