“We took pay cuts in the previous contract to keep the coal mines Union,” said Mike Wright. He’s worked at the Brookwood coal mines for over 18 years. Wright is talking about a labor dispute that led to the longest strike in the history of Alabama.
“We took what they gave us, and we worked out of it. It was a five-year contract and we worked through it in good faith, thinking they were going to negotiate a better contract with us. And that didn’t happen.”
The roots of this strike date back to 2015, when the miners’ former employer went bankrupt. The company was soon bought by Warrior Met, the mine’s current owner.
One concern in the coal industry has been slumping demand. A report in Bloomberg News says the amount of coal used to produce electricity is expected to drop by three percent this year. The website Today in Energy says sales for natural gas nearly doubled in 2021.
The steady decline of the coal industry has resulted in hefty pay cuts. For the average Alabama miner, it was a difference of around $20,000 per year. This contract ended in 2021. The new offer was considered by many to be an insult. And the issue wasn’t just about money.
“I mean… they’re still concerned about safety,” said Haeden Wright, an auxiliary president for the United Mine Workers of America.
“Those are dangerous conditions, even when the Union was there, and safety was really being enforced,” she said. “It’s one of the highest methane producing mines in the country, its extremely deep… so people I mean are still nervous.”
Haeden Wright is of no relation to miner Mike Wright, who spoke at the beginning of the story.
Haeden says miners were faced with drastically lower incomes and had to find work elsewhere to cover the bills. While morale may have been high during the strike, the financial strain did take its toll. Wright says some miners were also getting older.
“We’ve had members diagnosed with cancer, that were going through cancer treatments during the strike. We have a lot of our guys that were older, that are now coming off the strike. They’ve increased the rigor of the physical so they were forced to retire because they couldn’t do what they now said they had to.”
Some union members passed away while on strike, and others lost family. Despite the tragedies, these miners stuck together. They sent flowers, coordinated fundraising efforts, and baked dinners for each other. The strike was difficult, but they were all braving the difficulties together. Haeden Wright says it was necessary.
“If you don’t fight back, if you don’t do something just because you’re afraid it might be hard, you would never have any change in society. Because at no point in history has change ever come and it be easy and without sacrifice. So, I don’t regret being on strike that long and I don’t regret making those sacrifices.”
APR news contacted Warrior Met to hear the company’s side of the story. Those calls went unanswered.
As far as one observer is concerned, the future doesn’t look too good for unionized mine workers.
Adam Keller is the host of a local radio show, The Valley Labor Report. He focuses on the working class struggles of Alabamians. Keller sees a steady increase in corporate power, which he says is intentional.
“It’s a historic retreat,” he said. “Because they are trying to return us to conditions before 1890, before workers won the right to have a union and to fight collectively for better pay and benefits. It very much looks like we’re returning to the Gilded Age.”
Keller sees the Warrior Met strike as a prime example of the concerted effort to diminish the power of unions. He points to the two billion dollars in profits the company reportedly missed out on during the strike.
“Had they been fully operational the past two years, it would have been a drop in the bucket for the company. It’s about more than just money. I think it really is about power and crushing worker power.”
Keller says this doesn’t bode well for future generations of miners. Mining is often a job that gets passed down from parents to their children. Keller says that may not be the case in the future.
“Can this be a sustainable career for their kids, and their grandkids. Because… it is often a family business.”
Only about 250 of the original 1,100 miners returned to work at Warrior Met. The rest have found new jobs, retired, or have been blacklisted due to the strike. Those who have returned to work are employed alongside the same people who crossed the picket lines.
“I feel like they knew better,” said Mike Wright, the veteran miner we met at the beginning of this story. “And they knew what we were trying to accomplish. And they turned their backs on us and went back to work. That’s basically, like, betrayal.”
Wight says he and his former coworkers feel a sense of pride and ownership in the mines.
“We feel like that coal mine belongs to us. Because we bled, and sweat, and put everything into getting it to where it is. And for somebody to walk in there, and just feel like they own the place, that’s different. That’s a conflict, off the top. Because we’ve been there, and we’ve done the job. The only reason why they’re able to do what they’re doing is because of us.”
Wright says that he’s been blacklisted by Warrior Met. The company reportedly cited him and others for what they called “misconduct on the picket lines.”
And there definitely were some instances of misconduct. The Tuscaloosa news reported on various instances of vandalism committed by some miners, as well as a pipeline explosion believed to be connected to the labor dispute. But as for Wright, he says he was never told what he did to earn a spot on that list.
“We don’t know what the misconduct is. Like, as far as individually, I don’t know my case. I don’t have no idea what they’re saying I did. I don’t know.”
Wright is waiting for a phone call to tell him he can return to the job he’s held for over 18 years. Or, he will get one that tells him to find work someplace else. Either way, he will not be returning to the same workplace environment he once cherished. He summed up the frustrations he and his fellow miners feel toward Warrior Met in this way.
“You can’t do that. I mean, you just can’t work people to death, and work them into the ground, and don’t give them a return, a good return on their work and their labor. Because the only reason the company is successful is because of the workers.”
