The rally in Henderson, officially announced in the hours after a judge in US Bankruptcy Court ruled that producer Patriot Coal had a green light to eliminate collective bargaining agreements and cut retiree healthcare benefits, began at 10am as scheduled and lasted about two hours.

Shortly after noon approximately 15 demonstrators were taken into custody by local police for obstructing traffic after making a human chain and linking arms in the middle of the road outside of the Henderson County Courthouse.

Once again, one of the detained was UMWA president Cecil Roberts. He was among the last to take the podium at the gathering, which according to local media was otherwise conducted without incident.

The rally was the eighth organized by the UMWA. A majority of the others have convened in St Louis, Missouri, home to Patriot Coal’s headquarters office as well as those of Peabody Energy and Arch Coal.

“You know Peabody Coal and Arch thought we would go to Saint Louis and have one rally and that would be the end of it, but I have a message this morning for Mister Greg Boyce and the board of directors,” UMWA vice president Steve Earle told the crowd Tuesday.

“The United Mine Workers has never walked away from a fight, and we're not gonna start now. The United Mine Workers is here to stay.”

Patriot has operations in Kentucky that were previously owned by its parent company, Peabody Energy.

The miner alleges that in Peabody’s 2007 spin-off of the company, it was unfairly saddled with “approximately $600 million of retiree healthcare liabilities, along with hundreds of millions of dollars of other liabilities, including environmental reclamation obligations and black lung benefits”

Following the May 29 decision, the UMWA promised it would organize the rally and called the bankruptcy ruling “unfair”

“The ruling announced today by Judge Kathy Surratt-States of the US Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of Missouri in favor of proposals by Patriot Coal to eliminate its collective bargaining agreements and cut off retiree health care is wrong, unfair and fails to fully recognize the coming wave of human suffering that will be experienced by thousands of people throughout the coalfields,” Roberts said at the time.

“As often happens under American bankruptcy law, the short-term interests of the company are valued more than the dedication and sacrifice of the workers, who actually produce the profits that make a company successful.”

Roberts said the union worked to present a clear picture of what Patriot needed to emerge from its Chapter 11 reorganization, and insisted the producer could survive as a viable and profitable company going forward without “inflicting the level of pain on active and retired miners and their families it seeks”

“Patriot is using a temporary liquidity problem to achieve permanent changes that will significantly reduce the living standards of thousands of active and retired miners and their families,” he said.

“We are disappointed that the Bankruptcy Court failed to see that, and we intend to appeal the ruling to the Federal District Court.”

Roberts said the cuts allowed in the decision would have a significant impact but it would continue to meet with Patroiot officials to see if there is “a way forward”

“We have long acknowledged that Patriot is in trouble, because it can no longer pay Peabody and Arch’s bills,” he said.

“We remain willing to take painful steps to help Patriot get through the rough period it faces over the next couple of years.

“But if we’re going to share in that pain, then we have every right to share in the company’s gain when it becomes profitable again. That only makes sense, and we will continue to try to get this management team to understand that.”

Patriot Coal, which was spun off by Peabody Energy in 2007, received 43% of its liabilities and just 11% of its assets.

The following year, Patriot acquired Arch Coal spin-off Magnum Coal.

Patriot ultimately filed for bankruptcy reorganization last July.

The UMWA has been vocal about the companies’ moves since the filing, calling Patriot “designed to fail” and pointing out that its own chief executive officer Ben Hatfield referred to the situation as one that didn’t “smell right”

“Peabody Energy and Arch Coal executives claim that because Patriot and Magnum were spun off years ago, they have nothing to with the current litigation,” Roberts said.

“But nearly all of the retired miners who may lose their health care worked most or all of their careers for Peabody or Arch, not Patriot.”