A battle between capitalists and workers is raging in St. Louis, Mo. Peabody Coal, Arch Coal and a dubious spin-off of the two, Patriot Coal, are attempting to strip current and former employees of their hard-won health care benefits. On May 29, Bankruptcy Court Judge Kathy Surratt-State upheld Patriot Coal’s push to eliminate its obligations to mine workers. Following the unpopular and unjust decision, 4,000 workers, pensioners and supporters joined in a demonstration at the courthouse in Henderson, Ky.
In 2007, Peabody Coal, the largest coal company in the world, created a new business entity under the name of Patriot Coal, spinning off properties organized by the United Mine Workers of America east of the Mississippi into it. Additionally, Peabody dumped 40 percent of its health care liabilities into this new operation. These obligations, won by the UMWA, belong to 8,400 former Peabody employees. Two years earlier, Arch Coal, the second largest coal company in the country created a new entity, Magnum Coal, in a similar fashion. Shortly after Patriot was formed, it absorbed Magnum Coal and its health care obligations to an additional 2,300 workers.
While Peabody Coal and Arch Coal continue to grow and bring in significant profits, Patriot Coal has nosedived. Onerous interest rates, large long-term financial obligations, and insufficient productive capacities all but guaranteed its failure. Meanwhile, Peabody brought in $2 billion in revenue in 2012, and their CEO, Greg Boyce, took $10 million home in 2011. Patriot coal is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and in doing so, hopes to limit or completely eliminate its obligations to the workers. If the decision is approved by the courts, it will affect 22,000 former employees, their spouses and dependents. Ninety percent of these workers were never employed by Patriot Coal.
Loss of these benefits will severely affect workers who suffer from increasing rates of black lung and heart problems as well as other illnesses and injuries from mining. Local doctors who treat many former and current miners are concerned that even with Medicare, medical costs will crush workers without the medical coverage promised to them by Peabody and Arch Coal.
Union not throwing in the towel
The UMWA has fought for years to defend the interests of its members and has made clear that it is not about to throw in the towel. The outspoken president, Cecil Roberts, along with other miners, was arrested earlier this year at demonstrations in front of Peabody’s headquarters in St. Louis. The union has declared: “The UMWA’s Fight for Fairness at Patriot has only just begun. … We are mobilizing workers throughout the national and international labor movement, reaching out to religious, civil rights and other community groups, and preparing a number of tactical remedies […] to send Patriot an unmistakable message of solidarity.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation stands in firm solidarity with the United Mine Workers of America.
