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.

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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.

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UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts, “the UMWA will continue to strike at Warrior Met until an agreement can be reached that provides these miners what they deserve.”

As this strike stretches into a third week, there is no clear end in sight, and Fight Back! will continue to provide updates as they become available.

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On April 3, large crowds of miners could be seen picketing in front of the entrances to the mine chanting “No contract, no coal!”

UMWA says that members of management have received bonuses recently that were as large as $35,000.

The strike is an unfair labor practice strike and UMWA has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board around management’s behavior throughout the contract negotiations, and the union expects those charges will found to have merit and go through as they are investigated.

Management is reported to be looking at this as a long-term strike and beginning to make plans to bring in scabs in an attempt to bust the strike. While the use of scabs in any strike has a tendency to infuriate the striking workers, the coal mining industry has a special history in which use of scabs has created scenes involving destruction of company property and violence as a result.

Many of the most remembered of these clashes took place around the Coal Wars which happened over several decades between 1880 and 1930. However in much more recent history, coal strikes have continued to evoke major battles between coal miners who feel they have few options and mining companies which attempt to extract as much as wealth as possible from those workers. What will happen if the company follows through and brings in scabs is yet to be seen.

The UMWA says they are committed to this for the long haul and will keep fighting until they prevail.

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