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KY legislator steps up to save miner benefits

KENTUCKY representative and US House Subcommittee on Energy and Power chairman Ed Whitfield has u...

Donna Schmidt

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The discussion draft, which provides an informal starting position for a bill introduction in the House, outlines that miners who would be targeted for cut benefits would be eligible for the United Mine Workers of America’s 1993 Benefit Plan.

Whitfield said as many as 1500 workers and families in his Kentucky district could stand to lose health care through Patriot’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, with the producer having stated it would not be able to emerge from the reorganization without making significant changes to its obligations for retiree health care.

As a result, a bankruptcy court recently ruled that Patriot Coal was authorized to transition retirees into a voluntary employee beneficiary association.

Whitfield said he was introducing the draft because it was expected the UMWA would appeal the court’s ruling and therefore make the potential for the VEBA plan uncertain.

“It is critical that we protect the healthcare benefits of the thousands of Kentucky miners who have worked hard their entire careers to earn those benefits,” he said.

“That is why I am considering legislative options to ensure that the hardworking miners who took to the mines day in and day out don’t lose the health care that they have rightfully earned.”

The legislator acknowledged the challenges of the retirees’ pensions but noted that he needed to take an immediate step to address the priority issue: the availability of healthcare benefits.

“Protecting the healthcare benefits is just the first step in what may very well amount to a multifaceted process,” he said.

The full draft is available for viewing at http://whitfield.house.gov/sites/whitfield.house.gov/files/06.04.13%20UMWA%20Health%20Care.pdf target=_blank>http://whitfield.house.gov.

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