Roberts Speaks At Coal Forum

• {West Virginia}...At Wednesday's West Virginia Coal Forum held in Charleston, keynote speaker United Mine Workers Union President Cecil Roberts said the coal industry continues to grow despite attempts in Washington to stop the use of fossil fuels. Roberts said the national unemployment rate is at 9.2 percent and in West Virginia it's at 8.5 percent, but, despite the dismal numbers, there are plenty of jobs available in the coal industry. In the past five years Roberts says the union has added 3,000 new miners in West Virginia, a majority of those in the northern area of the state. Roberts said miners just got an immediate one-dollar per hour raise, and they're going to get another dollar in January. He said that's two dollars, or an 8 percent raise in six months, and, over the life of the contract, they're going to get a 25 percent overall raise. Roberts said, "I can tell you I don't know where there's another industry that can say that.”