Union spokesperson Phil Smith told ILN the space the group now occupied was in a high-cost area and not convenient to major routes of transportation. The new facility in Triangle, for which it has signed a 12-year lease, is within easy reach of Interstate 95 as well as the federal government entities of Washington, DC.

“We need to make sure our members’ money is well spent, meaning we needed to move,” he said, noting that UMWA will no longer have a presence in the old location after moving into the new office.

UMWA will occupy about 22,000 square feet and two floors of new construction building it will share with a regionally based land company. Smith pointed out that little would change from a human resources or service perspective.

“There will be, at the outset, no changes in staffing,” he noted to ILN.

“No one will be furloughed or transferred [and] there will be no impact on the industry or our representation of our coal mining members.”

Union international president Cecil Roberts said, “As we considered a new location for our international headquarters, we needed a location with immediate access to Washington, DC, that made economic sense for our organization.”

“Prince William County became an obvious solution to our needs and we are eager to begin the process of moving into our new facility,” added international secretary-treasurer Daniel Kane.

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors offered the UMWA a $US50,000 grant from the Prince William County Economic Development Opportunity Fund for the group’s workforce services and capital equipment purchases.

While the UMWA did not comment on any additional hiring at the new headquarters, it said there would be 38 new permanent positions created in the union which would remain in place for at least three years.

It is expected that UMWA staff will be in the new facility by the end of March 2010, the board said.

The union’s former Fairfax headquarters had been its home for four decades.