Retired Hoosier miners to ask Congress to protect pensions

Whether you want to call it the middle of the night or the crack of dawn, members of the United Mine Workers of America Local 9926 departed the Warrick County Fairgrounds while most area residents were still sleeping. Five chartered buses, each carrying more than 50 retirees, hit the road between 2:30 and 5:30 a.m.

It’s a small part of a massive fleet. More than 100 buses carrying mine workers from District 12 were set to head to Washington D.C., where thousands of retirees from Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and more will gather on the National Mall on Thursday to push for legislation that would prevent shortfalls in pension funds and healthcare as numerous Midwestern mine companies either wind through bankruptcy court or fail altogether.

The mood on crowded Bus One was jovial. Passengers called each other by their first names and indulged in inside jokes about advancing weights and ages even as a spastic air-conditioner darkened their union t-shirts with sweat.

But Thursday’s rally will be all business.

“We need healthcare and pensions,” said Mike Aigner, who worked as a field mechanic in Peabody Energy’s Lynnville mines for more than 27 years. “The only way we’re going to get it is if they pass the bills.”

Those bills — the Miners Protection Act in the Senate and an update to the Coal Healthcare and Pensions Protection Act in the House — have stalled since being introduced in 2015. Conservatives such as U.S. Rep Larry Bucshon — himself the son of a former union coal miner — have expressed support for the miners while finding fault with the legislation.

As Bus One cut through Kentucky and West Virginia Wednesday morning, Aigner and fellow retiree J.D. Chapman disagreed with that characterization.

“The money’s there. … There’s no burden to the taxpayers,” Aigner said. “All they have to do is move it and not use it for something else.”

The bills would transfer funds meant for the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 — legislation meant to safeguard environmental protections. That cribbing has caused hesitation for some Democrats. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, however, supports unequivocal passage of the bills.

For Chapman, the matter is simple: lawmakers need to keep the promise they made in the wake of World War II, when a massive mining strike led to the creation of government-funded pensions and healthcare for union miners.

“The money’s gone and this is a promise made to us back in 1946 by the government,” he said. “And they should be held accountable. They’re letting this happen.”

Thursday will mark the first massive miner rally in D.C., but it’s far from the union’s first protest. Miners from District 12, based out of Madisonville, Kentucky, and all over the Midwest have flooded Peabody’s headquarters in St. Louis several times. And a June rally in Lexington featuring 4,000 retirees served as a warmup for Thursday.

According to the UMWA, about 22,000 retirees will lose health benefits if legislation isn’t passed this year.

Access to healthcare has been concern for Aigner since 1999, when Peabody cast union laborers out of the Lynnville mine. After leaving Peabody, he worked for himself for five years until a heart attack at age 47 sent him looking for better coverage — and eventually landed him at Alcoa.

Chapman worked in drilling, blasting and truck-driving before losing his job in 1999. He couldn’t access his Peabody retirement benefits until he turned 55, so he turned to the Indiana Department of Transportation, where he worked for eight years.

Now those benefits are in danger after the bankruptcy of Patriot Coal — a Peabody spinoff neither Chapman nor Aigner ever worked for.

But both remembered their days at the mines with fondness.

“They were good jobs,” Chapman said.

But those early mornings and late nights? Well, they’re not used to those anymore.

With Bus One scheduled to leave by 5, Aigner arrived at 4:50 only to be jeered by his fellow passengers for being late.

“That’s kind of in a coal miners’ blood,” Chapman said. “When the bell rings, you come early.”