Published: December 22, 2006 02:56 am      

UMW approves new contract

About 80 percent of voters say yes

FAIRMONT — About 80 percent of the union coal miners who voted for a new contract Thursday approved the new five-year deal, union officials said.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) has about 20,000 active and laid-off coal miners, but union officials did not release the vote totals.

The deal with the national Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) sets the stage for talks between the union and coal companies other than Pittsburgh-based Consol Energy.

Consol Energy is the only company that is currently a BCOA member. About 3,200 of Consol’s 7,500 employees are union members. The company’s mines at Loveridge, Robinson Run and Blacksville No. 2 are union.

So are Consol Energy’s McElroy and Shoemaker mines in the Northern Panhandle, its Amonate prep plant in southern West Virginia and Mine 84 in western Pennsylvania.

Federal No. 2, also in Blacksville and operated by Peabody Energy doing business as Eastern Associated, is also union.

Consol Energy’s union mines produce roughly half of the company’s annual coal production, or about 34 million tons, a company spokesman said Thursday.

The union will now seek to get other producers to sign similar or “me too” contracts, union officials said.

The lopsided support for the new contract is humbling in its implied support for union leaders who negotiated the new pact, UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts said.

It’s also an endorsement of the union’s goal to make the pact stick at other union mines, he said in a statement issued from the union’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“In an era when workers in other industries are being confronted with significant cuts in health-care benefits and pension benefits — if they can hang onto those benefits at all — this agreement represents a significant departure from that trend,” Roberts said.

The union did not make any concessions on its current contract which runs out Dec. 31.

“We’re going to give the other coal companies an opportunity sign this agreement through the middle of January,” Roberts said.

“Hopefully, they will do that. But if they don’t, the union will make a determination at that time as to what action we will take.”

Miners at companies that have not yet signed the agreement will report to work on Jan. 2.

Under federal labor law, the 2002 contract will stay in effect at those companies until a new agreement is reached with them, he said.

The new contract calls for a 20 percent across-the-board increase in wages over the next five years, and an immediate lump sum bonus of $1,000 to be paid next month.

The pay package is the largest wage hike the union has negotiated since 1974, Roberts said.

“Over the life of the agreement, a miner working at the top rate will see over $32,000 more in his paycheck for just working straight time,” he said.

Underground miners working at the top rate will be earning $24.42 per hour in the contract’s final year. The training rate for new miners will be $22.77 per hour in the final year.

Pensions for future retirees will be increased by $10 per month, per year of service, and pensions for current retirees have been raised as well.

“A miner who retires with 30 years of service at the end of this agreement will see almost a $600 per month increase in his pension check,” Roberts said.

The BCOA also agreed to increase contributions to the UMWA 1974 Pension Fund. By the end of the agreement in 2011, the companies will have made over $500 million in contributions to the pension plan. The 1974 Pension Plan currently has $6.2 billion in funds.

The union preserved full health-care benefits for active and retired members and their dependents with no increase in co-payments. The contract also eliminates a cap on what retirees who receive health-care benefits from their former employers can earn and still receive those benefits.

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.