Striking Alabama Coal Miners Want Their $1.1 Billion Back

https://labornotes.org/2021/08/striking-alabama-coal-miners-want-their-11-billion-back

August 10, 2021 / Luis Feliz Leon

History repeated itself as hundreds of miners spilled out of buses in June and July to leaflet the Manhattan offices of asset manager BlackRock, the largest shareholder in the mining company Warrior Met Coal.

Some had traveled from the pine woods of Brookwood, Alabama, where 1,100 coal miners have been on strike against Warrior Met since April 1. Others came in solidarity from the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania and the hollows of West Virginia and Ohio.

Among them was 90-year-old retired Ohio miner Jay Kolenc, in a wheelchair at the picket line—retracing his own steps from five decades ago. It was 1974 when Kentucky miners and their supporters came to fight Wall Street in the strike behind the film Harlan County USA.

“Coal miners have always had to fight for everything they’ve ever had,” Kolenc said. “Since 1890, when we first started, nobody’s ever handed us anything. So we’re not about to lay our tools down now.”

FULL story at link above.



Eleven hundred miners have been on strike against Warrior Met since April 1. They made massive concessions in 2016 to keep their employer solvent. Photo: UMWA