coal miners Story Archives - Page 3 of 11 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Paychecks Cut For W.Va. Blackjewel Miners, KY And VA Still Waiting

West Virginia employees of coal operator Blackjewel LLC have received their final paychecks more than two months after the company declared bankruptcy on July 1.

In an agreement reached last week between the Department of Labor and the company, Blackjewel cut paper checks for all owed wages to a few dozen employees working at the company’s Pax Mine in Fayette County, West Virginia.

While good news for former West Virginia employees, about 1,000 miners in Kentucky and Virginia are still owed millions of dollars in back wages.

Christina Burgess’ husband, Greg, ran heavy equipment at the Pax Mine. The 20 year coal mining veteran had been laid off before, but the family had never before experienced the fallout from a paycheck bouncing, as Greg’s did in early July.

“It’s been unreal,” Christina Burgess said.

The Burgess family received Greg’s owed wages late last week, but is still waiting for the check to clear a bank hold.

Blackjewel’s bad check created a series of challenges. The first few unemployment checks the family received went straight to the bank to get the account out of the red. In total, Christina said Blackjewel’s bankruptcy has cost her family about $3,000 in penalties and fees.

Greg quickly found new work after the Pax Mine closed and the family had some money saved in preparation for a downturn in the local industry. Christinia said she empathizes with younger miners who were hit hard by Blackjewel’s sudden bankruptcy.

As one of the administrators for the Blackjewel Employees Stand Together Facebook group, she has heard many stories of families unable to pay their bills as a result of not being paid by Blackjewel. She expects the fallout from Blackjewel’s bad checks to have long-term consequences as well.

“Everybody that’s involved in this right now their credit score has been damaged because of this,” Christina said. “And that’s hard to come back from when you when your credit starts going down.”

She said she reached out to more than three dozen West Virginia state senators and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, but heard nothing back. She said she feels abandoned by West Virginia lawmakers who were slow to advocate on behalf of stiffed workers in the bankruptcy court and haven’t pushed utility companies or others to offer leniency to struggling Blackjewel families.

“They could have at least came in and said, you know, ‘don’t send turn off notices for the power bills, give them a little leeway,’” she said. “Nothing. We didn’t receive anything.”

The Pax mine is now owned by Tennessee-based Contura Energy. About 1,000 Blackjewel employees in Virginia and Kentucky are still awaiting millions of dollars in owed wages. A protest on the railroad tracks in Harlan County is in its eighth week.

Millions of dollars worth of coal mined by former Blackjewel employees is sitting in railcars. The Department of Labor says the coal is “hot goods” and can’t be moved or sold until the workers who mined it are paid for their work.

Last week, the bankruptcy court in West Virginia overseeing the case gave the Labor Department, Blackjewel, and Blackjewel Marketing and Sales (BJMS) — buyer of the disputed coal — until Sept. 23 to submit a series of briefs to the court. A final set of briefs is due Oct. 1.

The judge said he expects to review the documents “swiftly” and rule soon after whether the coal should remain sitting until the Blackjewel workers who mined it are fully paid, or if it can be sold.

BJMS has proposed paying $1.4 million for the coal. The Labor Department says back wages owed to workers directly involved in producing the “hot goods” coal in Kentucky and Virginia totals more than $3 million.

W.Va. Black Lung Clinics to Receive $1.9 Million

Nearly $2 million in federal funds will be awarded to West Virginia to help support the state’s black lung clinics.

West Virginia is expected to receive $1,954,576 through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin made the announcement in a Friday news release.

The funding will support the West Virginia Black Lung Clinics Program, which aims to provide primary and specialized health care services for coal miners and their families.

These clinics conduct outreach and education in the communities where they operate to provide holistic care to those suffering from black lung and other respiratory illnesses.

According to an NPR investigation in 2018, at least 2,000 former coal miners are suffering with Black Lung Disease across the United States, with many of those cases found in Central Appalachia.

Black Lung Patient Fights for Miner Benefits in His Final Days

Robert Bailey was a coal miner for 36 years. He began working in McDowell County, and after it became too hard to breathe, he retired from a mine owned by Patriot Coal in Boone County. Bailey first told his story with WVPB in June 2014. He shared his final story with Inside Appalachia host, Jessica Lilly, on February 15, 2019.

“It’s a struggle just to receive the help that you still need,” Bailey said back in 2014. He was still in the process of a lung transplant. At this time, Bailey was waiting to hear if Patriot Coal’s insurance company, Underwriters Safety and Claims, would approve his appointment for a medical evaluation. He’d already had to cancel one appointment.

Bailey had already been approved for federal black lung benefits by the U.S. Department of Labor and his doctor told him he needed a double lung transplant.

Black lung disease made it difficult for Bailey to breathe. “It’s almost like drowning,” he said.

As Bailey waded through another bureaucratic process, the clock was ticking, and he was running out of time.

“They told me that as soon as my testing was done that they’d put me on a list,” Bailey explained. “So that tells me that they don’t think that my lungs have very much life left in them.”

Transplant Grants Bailey 3+ More Years

Four months later, Robert Bailey’s lung transplant was approved by Patriot Coal’s insurance company. But when the bankruptcy was finalized, the company had shed these responsibilities. So, Bailey said the money came from the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which covers black lung medical benefits for bankrupt coal companies.

Robert Bailey (right) kisses his wife of 45 years, Brenda Bailey (left), after his lung transplant.

A double lung transplant comes with its own set of health challenges. About half of all adults who receive a double lung transplant live just five years after the surgery.

Robert became an advocate for miners with black lung and spoke twice to Congress during Senate hearings, urging lawmakers to act quickly in order to reduce the backlog of black lung cases still needed to be evaluated.

“I’m hoping that through my experience other people could maybe have better results,” he said.

Final Days

About two months ago, Robert learned he had an aggressive form of liver cancer. Doctors gave him weeks to live, and he was put on hospice care when he got home. He wanted to share more of his story.

“I wasn’t really shocked about it really,” Bailey said. “It wasn’t really news that I was looking forward to hearing, but I know it was news that we would have to deal with. But God gave me first breath. He’ll take my last one.”

Robert reflected on his struggle with black lung. He said that doctors told him his liver cancer was probably linked to medications he took as part of his treatment after his lung transplant. Still, he said, these side effects of his transplant wouldn’t have even been an issue if he hadn’t contracted black lung to begin with.

Mr. Bailey was a humble man, but he still wanted to share his story. He said he hoped that his suffering, and his death, wouldn’t be in vain.

“Even though I have been blessed with this extra time that I wouldn’t have had, it would be so much better in the long run if the disease itself would be conquered,” he said.

Robert said he hoped his story might help inspire lawmakers to take more steps to improve health conditions for other miners, and perhaps even prevent other coal miners from the same suffering. He pointed out that laws to protect coal miners typically don’t change until miners die, and sometimes not even then.

“Most laws across the nation, most laws [have] been written with blood. I don’t want the things I went through just to drop and no knowledge to be gained.”

As for advice for any young miners today, he said it’s important to do a good job during the day but it’s also important to be able to come back.

“I know a lot of them does a lot of things for the money, and they’re offered a lot of money to meet certain goals. But you can meet a goal today that will take you out of this world tomorrow,” Bailey warned.

Robert Bailey passed away 28 days after this conversation.

This story is part of an episode of Inside Appalachia about black lung disease.

Mining and Reclamation Symposium is This Week in W.Va.

West Virginia University and the West Virginia Mine Drainage Task Force are presenting a symposium this week on mining and reclamation regulations and practices.

The event is Tuesday and Wednesday at the Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place.

The program will be presented by university representatives and other mining and reclamation experts.

Soil science professor Jeff Skousen says researchers present findings at the annual meeting, and industry representatives share techniques they apply at their mine sites and results.

The university said it expects about 250 people to attend from neighboring countries and across the U.S.

With Black Lung Fund in Jeopardy, Taxpayers Could Foot Bill

The Trump administration and coal industry allies are insisting that a federal black lung trust fund will continue to pay benefits to sick miners despite a drastic cut in funding.

But the expected shortfalls will be covered by taxpayers instead of coal companies, adding more debt to the already struggling fund. And at least one Republican congressman from the coalfields has added his voice to the chorus of miners and advocates worried that the fund’s promise to sick workers and their families ultimately might not be kept.

Longtime U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky’s Appalachian region, said a government report shows the trust fund “is on an unsustainable path, potentially putting the benefits on which many families in my region rely in jeopardy.”

The cut potentially means hundreds of millions in savings for coal companies, though Trump’s Labor Department acknowledges that the trust fund’s purpose was for the industry to pay for the health of workers who got sick mining coal.

In January, the tax rate coal companies pay to support the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund was cut in half, leaving sick miners and their advocates fearing future benefit cuts from a fund that is already about some $4 billion in debt.

“The trust fund is billions of dollars in debt and we just cut the revenue stream that funds it in half, in the face of the most serious outbreak of black lung disease that we’ve seen in the U.S.,” said Wes Addington, a Kentucky lawyer who helps coal miners seek black lung benefits. “They’re not explaining how the math works on that, and at what point it becomes a problem, and what’s the solution to that problem in a year or two years?”

The Department of Labor said in a statement Wednesday that it is obligated to continue paying benefits to sick miners, so a shortfall would be covered by borrowing from taxpayers.

“The U.S. Treasury is required by statute to make repayable advances to the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund so that it can meet its obligations,” the statement said.

With cash trickling into the fund at less than half its usual rate, federal budget officials estimate that by the middle of 2020 there won’t be enough money to fully cover the fund’s benefit payments. The 1977 law establishing the trust fund was designed to “shift fiscal responsibility for black lung benefit payments from the federal government to the coal industry,” according to a congressional budget justification document created by the Department of Labor this year.

Miners say coal operators want to foist their obligations back on the government.

“It only seems fair that since this is an industry-caused problem, the industry should be paying for these benefits instead of shifting the burden onto taxpayers, as they have done,” United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said in a statement Wednesday. Roberts said miners are concerned that the mounting deficit in future years will force lawmakers to cut benefits.

Lawmakers could restore the tax rate to its 2018 level, but that hasn’t happened. Some Democratic senators, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, have sponsored a bill to extend the 2018 tax rate for another 10 years. The rate of $1.10 per ton of underground mined coal was cut by more than half to about 50 cents in the new year. The fund took in about $450 million in revenue in fiscal year 2017.

The mining industry supported the higher tax rate’s expiration.

“We must provide peace of mind to American miners and their families by restoring the excise tax on coal,” Sen. Warner said in a statement. “Anything else is an empty promise.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had pledged last year to not let the tax rate expire, but that didn’t happen. McConnell has maintained that benefits would continue to be paid despite the cuts.

In a statement, McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer said Wednesday that an increase in the tax “would require a bipartisan and bicameral effort that can pass both chambers.” Steurer noted that that effort would have to begin with a bill in the House of Representatives.

Carl Shoupe, an ex-miner in Harlan County, said he believes lawmakers and the industry “are just kicking the bucket down the road.”

“I honestly believe they’ll start cutting benefits, if people don’t start speaking up and standing up for them,” Shoupe said.

Addington, executive director of the Appalachian Citizens Law Center in Whitesburg, Kentucky, said he has seen a spike in miners seeking black lung claims, and the CDC has reported on the proliferation of a serious strain of black lung that is sickening miners at younger ages.

“We’re not only seeing more claims, most of the claims we’re getting are much more severe cases of black lung than ever came into this office a decade ago,” Addington said. “And it’s not even close.”

Justice Makes Appointments to Miners' Health Safety Office

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has made three appointments to the state’s Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Justice said in a news release that he appointed Eugene White to replace the retiring Greg Norman as the office’s director.

Justice also named Johnny Kinder, who has worked for the office since 2002, and Frank Foster, who was a safety coordinator for Massey Coal Services during the Aracoma Coal Co. fire in 2006, as deputy directors.

The United Mine Workers said Justice passed up an opportunity to hire Carl Egnor. He sits on the state Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety.

The union added that the office’s operators have been “taking away all its enforcement powers and firing all its inspectors.”