Hi I am married to a UMWA union coal miner from the Deer Creek mine and there is a lot more to this story.
There is a terrific article about the miner’s struggles in this month's Mine Worker's Journal, the link to it is here and the article begins on page 6:
[link:http://www.umwa.org/files/u1/UMW_Jrl_MarAprWEB.pdf|]
http://www.umwa.org/files/u1/UMW_Jrl_MarAprWEB.pdf
You can also peruse the website of this local union at:
[link:http://www.umwalocal1769.com/|]
http://www.umwalocal1769.com/
The local newspaper in the area also wrote a very informative article regarding the miner’s planned picket of Berkshire Hathaway’s Stockholder’s meeting and published it the day after they miner’s left on the trip. You can see that article here:
[link:http://www.sunad.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=28045|]
http://www.sunad.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=28045
Energy West Mining, a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy, officially states they are "negotiating in good faith" & "committed to a fair solution". What a joke! The company has said in every negotiation meeting they will discuss nothing but health care UNTIL the union is willing to accept the cuts--from 100% to 70/30%--and until then they won't even talk about pay raises, etc.
UMWA coal miners have given up many pay raises over the past years to be able to maintain their 100% health care coverage. With the UMWA National Contract being settled just last year giving the miner's covered under it 100% health coverage still, Deer Creek's union miners are asking for the same contract the rest of the UMWA miners have. Really is that too much to ask?
Since the contract expired in Jan. Energy West Mining has allowed the miners to continue working under the expired contract but have taken away all the "time sensitive" aspects of the contract--sick pay, vacation pay, etc., making it impossible for the miners to have a day off, unless they have been there long enough to have earned what is referred to as "graduated vacation time" and they can only use that time with the mine manager's permission.
The company has also stated there will be absolutely no holiday pay, and even went so far as to idle the mine on April 1 (the 1st holiday of the year for UMWA coal miners) not paying anyone the 8 hours holiday pay the contract entitled them to. At Deer Creek the company has implemented the "weekend/holiday schedule" which is in the expired contract and would have required a few of the miners to work April 1 and receive 1 2/3 pays for the day, but idling the mine made sure they couldn't get the pay they were entitled to either.
Then there is other stuff going on too--they have even went so far as to hire armed guards to patrol the mine site, as well as other intimidation factors such as sending out a copy of MidAmerican Energy's "code of ethics" that states employees cannot engage in any conduct which might put the company in a bad light or embarrass the company in any way, or they will be terminated from their jobs.
But just to add a little more about this, the IBEW Local 57 Union (whose workers work for PacifiCorp, also a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy, and run the power plants which the coal from Deer Creek supplies) is also in contact negotiations--their contract expired the end of Jan. BUT they have already been given 2 written proposal to vote on--also taking away their health care coverage and trying to cut them down to 70/30 and the IBEW union workers have voted it down both times. (But they received all their sick and vacation days for this year, and President’s Day being their first paid holiday under their expired contract they received the day off with pay!) UMWA officials from Deer Creek can't even get a written proposal worked up to put in front of the miners for a vote--and the company says it is bargaining in good faith?
But to add insult to injury, at least for me, is the fact as I was searching on the internet Saturday to see if our miner’s got any media coverage with these pickets I ran across some articles--one stating Berkshire Hathaway is now the 5th most valuable company in the world, another stating Buffett offered David Sokol, former CEO of MidAmerican Energy, an additional 12.5 million dollar compensation just years before it was found out he was allegedly making improper stock trades, even yet another says Berkshire Hathaway reported $4+ billion dollar gains in the first quarter of this year.
But even with all of this money they apparently have, they maintain the union miners (& power company workers) have to accept the health care cuts so the company can remain “competitive”!!!
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