7 months into the strike the miners have vowed to continue their strike regardless of the temporary restraining order. Warrior Met has already taken more than $1.4 billion in Concessions from the miners according to the UMWA

Cecil E. Roberts, International President of UMWA, stated “Consider for a moment that the Wall Street bankers who are calling the shots at Warrior Met took $1.4 billion in workers’ concessions out of Alabama communities and sent it up to New York to line their pockets. And then sucked another $750 million from the company’s revenues almost immediately after Warrior Met emerged from bankruptcy”.

Roberts went on to say “Consider also that for the last several months, Alabama State Police have been working on the public’s dime to escort out-of-state strikebreakers who have been brought in to take Alabama taxpayers’ jobs. Where is the sense in that? We have seen no protest or investigation by our state’s leaders about this clear misuse of taxpayer dollars.” and “Let me be clear: We remain ready to engage in serious and good-faith negotiations to resolve this dispute, but this TRO will not stop our strike”

The company sites safety as the reason for the TRO, however Warrior Met has long been attempting to bring in scab workers to replace the miners and try to break their strike. This order forbidding picket lines near entrances to the premises of the mine is another way for Warrior Met to attempt to outlast the strikers by using scab labor.

The miners continue to be resolved to strike for as long as it takes.

#TuscaloosaAL #PeoplesStruggles #strike #Strikes #WarriorMetCoalMine #UnitedMineWorkersOfAmericaUMWA

Brookwood, AL – Coal miners who work at the Warrior Met Coal mine held a large rally on August 4 in Brookwood, Alabama. The miners, represented by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), have been on strike for more than four months with no apparent end in sight. The strike began after the company gave the miners a $6 dollar per hour wage cut. At the same time, the company saw large increases in profits.

It was a hot day in full sun, but that didn’t deter a huge crowd of miners and their families and others from coming out to show support for the strike. Besides miners from the Warrior Met Coal there were also many members of the UMWA locals from all across the country. Also seen were many members of other unions, including United Auto Workers, the Communications Workers of America, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and many more. Notably, there was a large showing of delegations of Teamsters union members including groups from all over the South, including South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. AFL-CIO presidents from many of those states spoke as well.

Unions announced donations to support the strike fund of the UMWA workers. A group of Walmart workers gave a notable contribution in a show of working-class solidarity from retail workers to miners.

At the rally, Donnie Samms, who is the at-large International Vice President of UMWA, said, “The company thinks that being on strike this long makes us weaker, but it doesn’t make us weaker, it only makes us stronger. We’re all in this together until we win this thing. How are we going to win this strike? If you think the law, the police, are going to be on our side, the justice system is going to be on our side, your wrong. The only way we are going to win is solidarity, sticking together as one. Period.”

Warrior Met recently released its second quarter numbers report and they lost $4.7 million. It is estimated that the strike has cost the company a total of around $7 million.

#BrookwoodAL #PeoplesStruggles #WarriorMetCoalMine #UnitedMineWorkersOfAmericaUMWA

Ludlow, CO – On June 27, the United Mineworkers of America (UMWA) hosted a commemoration of the Ludlow Massacre of 1914 at the Ludlow Monument near Trinidad, Colorado. The commemoration was attended by approximately 75 trade unionists and community members to solemnly remember a violent period in Colorado labor history.

The Ludlow Massacre, one of the most explosive periods in U.S. labor history, occurred in 1914 when the Colorado National Guard and company thugs burned striking miners’ tents and shot people in the camp, killing 13 children, two mothers and a number of miners. The massacre marked the climax of a conflict known as the Colorado Coalfield War, a period in 1913 and 1914 in which thousands of miners went on strike against the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. The miners wanted an eight-hour work day, enforcement of Colorado mining safety laws, and, most importantly, union recognition.

In response to the Ludlow Massacre, the United Mine Workers of America armed around 1000 miners, who shut down more than six mines. For the next ten days, miners were in charge and shot anybody who dared to oppose them with weapons. The Colorado Coalfield War left around 50 coal company thugs and state militiamen dead. Federal troops were called in.

“We coal miners are not bashful; sometimes you have to march, sometimes you have to use a gun, you do what you have to do to survive,” said UMWA District 22 Vice President Michael Dalpiaz, highlighting the determination of the miners at Ludlow. Dalpiaz went on to trace the militant history of the UMWA, from the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia to the Peabody Coal Strike of 1993, stressing the need for militant class-struggle unionism. “If you’re gonna have a cause, you better be ready to fight, because if you don’t fight you won’t get anything,” said Dalpiaz proudly.

Another speaker, Dr. Ericka Wills of the University of Colorado, connected the struggle of the miners at Ludlow to the 2020 uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd. “When you look at the Chicano Movement or the African American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s or other pivotal periods in U.S. history, you see that the history of labor rights, civil rights, gender rights are all inextricably intertwined,” Wills stated.

Wills also presented a letter of solidarity from the Mexican Miners’ union Los Mineros to the UMWA and the United Steel Workers. “For decades, Los Mineros and the United Steelworkers in the U.S. have worked to represent laborers on both sides of the border. USW and Los Mineros have come together in solidarity and education on both sides of the border,” Wills proclaimed, showcasing the importance of international worker solidarity.

The commemoration ended with a prayer and a call to action to support striking UMWA miners at Warrior Met coal in Alabama, who have been on strike since April 1. Dalpiaz concluded the event by stressing the importance of remembering the martyrs of Ludlow, “This is hallowed ground. This is sacred ground for our union, and we will never, ever forget.”

#LudlowCO #PeoplesStruggles #LudlowMassacre #UnitedMineWorkersOfAmericaUMWA