Coal company running down it's striking miners

[crimson5pheonix]

Alabama’s Coal Miners Are Striking for Their Lives

Over a thousand miners at Warrior Met Coal have been on strike now for over two months, and the conflict is only heating up.

www.thenation.com

Out in Alabama the coal miners are striking. They have been for months. The mine owner went bankrupt five years ago and a new owner came in to save it. The miners took massive cuts until the mine could be solvent again with the understanding that these cuts would be temporary. Now that the mine is solvent again and the owners are raking in millions, they refuse to negotiate with the miners for a proper wage again.

So the miners went on strike, the whole community is backing them because despite popular conservative opinion, unions are popular, especially with the people in them. The same union has been in town for over a century and the miners are going to hold their bosses accountable. Or at least they're going to try. With modern labor laws being absurdly lax, they've imposed a lot of restrictions on the miners ability to strike, and when that failed they've resorted to running them over to break the picket line. So far it's about even odds that the police go after the guy in the truck running miners down or the miners for daring to be in the way of a truck trying to break a picket line.

 

[Hawki]

Hate to be "that guy," but given the climate crisis, maybe we should think about helping miners transition to new work, rather than allowing the coal industry to continue?

Coal isn't a good investment these days, even from a purely financial standpoint.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

We should, but that's socialmalisms, so we can't

 

[Mister Mumbler]

Well, looks like the 20's are getting a do-over, what with the recent plague and now coal wars.

 

[Neuromancer]

Well, looks like the 20's are getting a do-over, what with the recent plague and now coal wars.

History repeats. First as a tragedy, then as a farce.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, looks like the 20's are getting a do-over, what with the recent plague and now coal wars.

Random piece of trivia, the Thompson submachine gun was originally designed for the trenches of WW1, but peace broke out and it was hard to find buyers. One thing they advertised it as being good for was dealing with unions and labour disputes.

 

[Buyetyen]

Now we just need the Pinkertons to make a comeback and we're all set for a sequel to the Homestead Strike.

 

[Worgen]

Hate to be "that guy," but given the climate crisis, maybe we should think about helping miners transition to new work, rather than allowing the coal industry to continue?

Coal isn't a good investment these days, even from a purely financial standpoint.

What is interesting is most of the mines that mined coal for energy have gone under and no one bought them out. The difference here is that this mine mines coal for steel production.

" BISAHA: While many coal mines continue to struggle, Warrior Met Coal is an exception. That's because it mines coal not used for energy but making steel. The company reported net income of roughly half a billion dollars a year since 2017. It did have a small loss last year because of the pandemic. "

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Well, striking is a form of protesting, people who protest poor wages are automatically communists, and communists are sub-human monsters who hate America and therefore deserve to die! Republicans taught me this! (Why else would Oklahoma and Iowa pass laws that grant immunity to people who run over protesters on public streets?)

 

[Schadrach]

Hate to be "that guy," but given the climate crisis, maybe we should think about helping miners transition to new work

Sure thing. Of course, you're talking about folks with a ton of practical experience in the mines and usually not a lot of formal education who are generally paid very well to do the job and have mostly set down roots. So, the typical answer of telling them to go on various entitlement programs that won't cover their mortgage, car payment, and basic utilities while the train for a new job that pays half what they're used to and requires them to move to another state to actually find a job isn't going to go over well.

We have the same problem here in WV. I keep saying that solar boiler power plants would be the way to go - you have a lot of people with mining and chemical company experience, many of the skills would readily transfer to building, running and maintaining the plants, the piping could be sourced locally (it should all fall under ASME codes 31.1 and 31.3 and the boiler and pressure piping stamps - I personally know of multiple shops in WV that could do the work), supposedly Appalachia has a great climate for it, it's even more green than photovoltaic panels (no rare earths involved), though it consumes a lot of water (which we have tons of in this region) and conveniently former mountaintop removal mine sites would be the optimal locations to build them.

Well, looks like the 20's are getting a do-over, what with the recent plague and now coal wars.

The largest labor uprising in US history, and the largest armed uprising since the Civil War was the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was part of the Coal Wars. Let's hope we don't repeat that one.

 

[CM156]

Well, looks like the 20's are getting a do-over, what with the recent plague and now coal wars.

I'm not looking forward to Communists/Socialists and Fascists engaged in pitched street battles. But I guess that's already happening.

 

[SilentPony]

If that's not the worst part, I bet that truck driver was a miner!

 

[Gergar12]

I dislike both parties, and wish them both a suffocating hell.

 

[Trunkage]

Random piece of trivia, the Thompson submachine gun was originally designed for the trenches of WW1, but peace broke out and it was hard to find buyers. One thing they advertised it as being good for was dealing with unions and labour disputes.

If I remember correctly, a Hatfield was a negotiator in the 20s mining strikes, and wouldn't attack the union... until he was killed. Paving the way for an aerial bombardment. (My piece of random trivia)

Also, remember when Congress changed how the second amendment, banning things like explosives and shorn off shotguns.... It was to stop mining unions fighting back.... Also, whenever someone says they cant restrict gun laws due to the second amendment, know that it is either a lie or ignorance. Given the right motivation, congress will do anything.

 

[Agema]

Hate to be "that guy," but given the climate crisis, maybe we should think about helping miners transition to new work, rather than allowing the coal industry to continue?

Coal isn't a good investment these days, even from a purely financial standpoint.

Maybe if they paid their workers properly, we'd find out coal wasn't so economically viable and it would die quicker.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Maybe if they paid their workers properly, we'd find out coal wasn't so economically viable and it would die quicker.

 

[AnxietyProne]

Well, looks like the 20's are getting a do-over, what with the recent plague and now coal wars.

As someone related to people who fought in the Battle of Blair Mountain, this hurts my soul.

 

[Seanchaidh]

"We may say a few things at them as they're going by, but we let people go by and we're not impeding traffic and our folks are still getting hit anyway"