Thousands of Evansville area miners prepare for rally in D.C.

Members from District 12 of the United Mine Workers of America on Wednesday will board buses bound for Washington D.C., where they will gather for a massive rally in front of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

They’re pushing for votes and eventual passage of two pieces of legislation that will protect the pensions and health benefits first pledged to them by President Harry S. Truman in 1946.

Those bills — The Miners Protection Act in the Senate and the Coal Healthcare and Pensions Protection Act in the House — would prevent potential shortfalls in pensions and healthcare costs that have become more ominous as the plans struggle to rebound from the 2008 economic crisis.

Steve Earle, vice president for District 12 based out of Madisonville, Kentucky, said at least 100 buses from across the country will make the trip, including more than 30 out of the Midwest. Five of those buses, carrying more than 200 mine workers, will leave from the Warrick County 4-H Fairgrounds.

Earle hopes for a dramatic display in Washington, saying his group will lug “caskets and crosses” on the trip to highlight the thousands of miners who have died from black lung.

“What we’re trying to do essentially is put a human face on what’s at stake,” Earle said. “The coal industry is in a depression.”

Earle said three of the four top unionized coal companies have declared bankruptcy since 2011. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 191,000 coal mining jobs have been nixed since September 2014. Now even those who managed to keep their jobs for decades may lose much-needed health benefits.

The rally comes in the wake of many large energy companies either going out of business or declaring bankruptcy — including Patriot Coal, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy that winded through bankruptcy court last year. Union members have accused companies of using bankruptcy as a tactic to renege on paying out benefits to retirees.

Dave Hadley is among those members. He’ll serve as bus captain for the Boonville contingent: a group he said will include former workers from Peabody, AMAX and the Old Ben Coal Mines in Southern Illinois, among others.

He said each of his buses will hold 54 people. As of Aug. 31, four of the buses were full, with about 40 signed up for a fifth.

“At the end of the day, the bankruptcy judge has an obligation to keep the company solvent,” he said. “Everybody else is second fiddle, and has little protection.”

That level of protection hit a peak after a slew of labor strikes in the wake of World War II. Almost 400,000 coal workers refused to come to work starting in April 1946, according to the New York Times. As the economy struggled, Truman eventually requested arbitration. When that failed, he threatened to fine the UMWA $3.5 million. Still, the settlement brought the workers safer conditions and a promise of health benefits and a retirement pension.

The most recent legislation would transfer funds meant for the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 — a bill meant to safeguard environmental protections — toward the flagging pension plans.

The bills have been criticized by politicians from both sides of the aisle: by conservatives who claim they place heavy burdens on taxpayers; and by liberals who decry the cribbing from an environmental law.

In a statement issued to the Courier & Press, U.S. Rep Larry Bucshon expressed support for the mine workers, but feared a “tax-payer-funded bailout.”

“I grew up the son of a coal miner in a small coal-mining town. Everyone I knew growing up was involved in the coal industry in one way or another. That’s why I’ve had an ongoing, open discussion with miners as well as local companies to make sure we can get to a solution that will protect the pensions and health benefits of hard working people like my dad,” Bucshon said in the statement. “Unfortunately, there is not yet a consensus on the best path forward. … It’s my hope that we can come to a common-sense solution … .”

Sen. Joe Donnelly, meanwhile, unequivocally called for the Senate to pass the Miners Protection Act.

“… Miners deserve the benefits they were promised and earned. We made a promise to these coal miners, who did their part for decades. We cannot now turn our backs on them,” he said in a statement.

The rally is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT Thursday . Hadley said the buses from Boonville will depart in the early morning hours on Wednesday before returning Friday evening.

“All we’re asking that a promise made be a promise kept,” Earle said. “People shouldn’t have to make a decision between buying groceries and buying medicine.”