click link
snip
Retired miners trace the promise of lifetime health benefits to a 1946 agreement between President Harry Truman and UMWA President John L. Lewis that resolved a nationwide strike that had forced President Truman to take over the nation's coal mines. The phrase "lifetime benefits" has appeared in contracts between the UMWA and most coal companies, including Peabody and Arch.
The UMWA won most job protections, like the eight-hour workday and child labor laws, through violent confrontations between the union and management in the early 20th century. In the 1920 uprising at Blair Mountain in southern West Virginia, 10,000 armed UMWA supporters fought 3,000 hired agents and lawmen who backed the coal companies. The U.S. Army restored order after more than 100 were killed.
But the UMWA can no longer muster the threat of a nationwide strike. It had 800,000 members in the 1930s. It now represents 20,000 active miners, or a quarter of the nation's hourly coal miners, after decades of automation and the opening of nonunion mines. Its retirees are the living legacy of the union. More than 100,000 retired miners, plus their spouses, are covered under UMWA's negotiated pension and health plans, which collectively pay out $1.2 billion a year, slightly more than half—$630 million—in health benefits.
No comments:
Post a Comment