Inside Alabama s longest strike: Warrior Met Coal and union s ugly fight detailed in new documents al.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from al.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By John Hawkins and Susan Lamont May 31, 2021
Militant/Susan LaMontWarrior Met No. 4 mine picket line, in Brookwood, Alabama, May 16. “The company knows we’re only asking for what they took from us in 2016,” striker Harold Young, at right, said.
BROOKWOOD, Ala. “We need national exposure for our strike,” Harold Young, a United Mine Workers of America union member on strike at Warrior Met Coal’s No. 4 mine, told the
Militant on the picket line here May 16. Spreading the word about the strike is crucial for building solidarity.
“The company knows we’re only asking for what they took from us in 2016 and what other union miners have. We deserve more, with the cost of living going up all the time,” he said. Young has worked at the mine for 10 years.
‘The fire has started!’ in Alabama Amazon, mine workers
April 18 Miners at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, Ala., struck April 1 and are still picketing as of this writing. On April 9 they voted 1,006 to 45 to reject a contract that would have restored only $1.50 of a $6-an-hour pay cut workers took in 2016 to pull the company out of bankruptcy. The rejected contract would have continued brutal disciplinary and firing policies and dangerous working conditions. (See Workers World, “After BAmazon, Alabama mine workers go out on strike,” April 2)
On strike in Brookwood, Ala., April 8.
Photos on social media showed workers and their children burning copies of the contract. One picture of a miner’s hand on top of a “No” ballot revealed a missing index finger lost in a mine accident.
Solidarity with miners, steelworkers on strike! – The Militant themilitant.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from themilitant.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.