Written by Econintersect
The largest union in the US for coal miners, the United Mine Workers (UMW), has issued a new political policy statement supporting the transition to alternative energy sources. The statement has specific conditions for the support, addressing the economic well-being of their members and mining communities in general.
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From the UMW website:
The UMWA’s principles for a true energy transition that will enhance opportunities for miners, their families and their communities are built around three simple goals: preserve coal jobs, create new jobs, and preserve coalfield families and communities.
Change is coming, whether we seek it or not. Too many inside and outside the coalfields have looked the other way when it comes to recognizing and addressing specifically what that change must be, but we can look away no longer. We must act, while acting in a way that has real, positive impact on the people who are most affected by this change.
The full policy statement is available here. The details of what they propose is as follows (from linked policy statement):
According to Wikipedia there were about 60,000 coal miners employed in the US in 2014 (the last year for which we have found the following detailed data). Of those about 20,000 were UMW members, mostly in West Virginia and Kentucky. Most of the non-unionized miners work in the open-pit mines of Colorado and Wyoming.
The UMW proposal does not specify that only its members should benefit from the transition plan.
For further reading about this see Grist. According to this article the number of active coal miners has fallen from 60,000 in 2014 (mentioned above) to 44,000 today, with the largest concentration of job losses in the eastern underground mines. Also from the Grist article is mention of the pay that a transition plan would be expected to deliver:
The union’s shift could prove a tough sell. The average coal industry worker puts in 50 hours a week for $75,000 a year – which often comes with a pension and health insurance. Exposure to coal mine dust is a health hazard, but some are skeptical the alternatives will pay as well.
Caption picture is from the following image:
Remote Continuous Miner HM21 Joy Used for underground coal mining Xlxgoggaxlx, Wikipedia Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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