According to West Virginia business news outlet the State Journal, the union has been busing active and retired miners from across the eastern US coal states to demonstrate on January 29 with a march to the city’s federal building as well as outside of Peabody Energy headquarters.
“We will be there and I expect there will be some civil disobedience," UMWA president Cecil Roberts told WCHS Radio. “Including me.”
The UMWA did not make a public announcement of the move, but its motivation is known – the union is claiming Peabody shunned its obligations to miners and retirees and opposed the financial moves which were made by it as well as Arch Coal that allowed them to escape that responsibility.
Specifically, the union believes that Patriot Coal, which was spun off from Peabody in 2007, was set up as a spin-off company by Peabody and Arch and then allowed to waste away into bankruptcy, thus removing the burden of responsibility for employee obligations.
The group has fought against the Chapter 11 bankruptcy since it was filed by Patriot officials last July.
“What we have here is a company reneging on its promises,” Roberts told the Journal.
“We're not going to take it. We will fight for our members and their families in the courts, in the coalfields and in the streets of St Louis.
“Patriot and Peabody have a moral obligation to those who mined their coal."
The UMWA leader also pointed out on a recent interview with West Virginia talk show MetroNews Talkline that many of those impacted by the situation did not ever work for troubled Patriot, but instead were retired from Peabody or Arch (Arch’s spin-off, Magnum Coal, was ultimately absorbed by Patriot).
“Now they're being told because some other company is going out of business they lose their benefits. That just can't be right,” he said.
A status hearing in the Patriot bankruptcy is also set for Tuesday at the St Louis federal building.
The proceedings were initially set for New York, where the documentation was filed in 2012. A change of venue was approved late last year to move the case to Peabody’s headquarters state of Missouri.
