In Trump country, a group of coal miners rebel over lost jobs, missed paychecks
Washington Post
By Tim Craig August 31
CUMBERLAND, Ky. — Sitting in lawn chairs plopped in the middle of train tracks, two coal miners smoked and chewed tobacco to pass the time. There’s been little else to do here for the past four weeks, except wave at motorists who honk in support of these homegrown heroes waging a national struggle over workers’ rights.
Since Chris Rowe and Chris Sexton were laid off from their mining jobs this summer along with 300 co-workers, they have been camped out here in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, blocking a train car full of coal from going to market. Their protest is against coal company Blackjewel, which halted operations in July without settling its final salary obligations to Rowe, Sexton and an estimated 1,800 other workers across the country. But it’s also become a declaration against corporate bankruptcy laws that they say deprioritize workers’ interests.
“The same situation may have happened to others, but we are the ones making a stand,” said Rowe, 35, who was laid off days after he purchased his first house. “We mined the coal and broke our backs to get that coal, so that coal belongs to us until they pay for it.”
More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-trump-country-a-group-of-coal-miners-rebel-over-lost-jobs-missed-paychecks/2019/08/31/52ee4fbc-cb2e-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html?fbclid=IwAR3_dcqhGFxOvAg8snMrtiR3_xaZdIFnt-KAMbOZextS74xlF3sDgIO8Y3M
= new reply since forum marked as read
Long may they persevere.
so the coal could go through and said she'd be ready to address the case further in a couple weeks. That was about a week ago.
