People with United For Coal stood by a highway in Pikeville over the weekend to spread the message about the importance of coal.

The demonstration previewed United For Coal’s main event in Pikeville Monday, the United For Coal Rally.

United Coal founder Allen Gibson told local television network WYMT Mountain News that shutting down coal mines would force young people to move away for work.

Eastern Kentucky has been hit with a series of mine closures and layoffs over the past 12 months. As of early July, the beginning of the EEC’s third quarter, there were 12,342 miners employed in Kentucky coal operations and facilities, 7951 in eastern Kentucky and 4391 in western Kentucky. That is the lowest number statewide since 1927, according to the report from the cabinet.

“During the two years since July 2011, total employment at eastern Kentucky coal mines has fallen by 5725 or 41.9%,” the EEC noted in its four-page data report.

Kentucky mines have felt the impact of losses in production and people for largely the same reasons as other coal-rich mining regions, the challenges of competition from natural gas as well as relatively high production costs and stiffening environmental regulations.

Gibson said the event would have entertainment and some surprise guest speakers, all of whom volunteered to attend the rally.

"They're coming here in support of their families and in support of the working people here in Eastern Kentucky," Gibson said.

The United For Coal Rally will start on Monday at 11 am. The free event will be located outside the Texas Roadhouse in Pikeville.

United For Coal said the rally had 200,000 attendees last year, with organisers hoping for about 1 million this year.

United Coal’s mission is to “provide the miners of the United States a forum by which they can make their collective voices heard to those who are in a position to make policy changes that are favorable to the coal industry”, according to the group’s Facebook page.