Union feels sting of Murray layoffs

Another sign of the times in the coal industry came this week when Ohio based Murray Energy laid off more than 200 employees.   The latest layoffs were at the company’s Marshall County Mine, Ohio County Mine, and Harrison County mine.  It’s the second round of layoffs announced in recent weeks for the company which idled its Monongalia County operation three weeks ago.

Among those who’ve been sent home are about 90 members of the UMWA.  Those laid off at the Marshall County Mine were contract workers.

“It’s no big secret the coal market is down and that concerns each one of us,” said UMWA District 31 President Mike Caputo. “It’s certainly our hope that Murray-American Energy can move the coal they have and hopefully get a fair price for it and put our members back to work.”

Caputo said coal miners are clearly doing the job they were hired to do.  Stockpiles at all three operations are piled high.  The coal however isn’t disappearing from those piles as rapidly as it once did.   Murray blamed the furloughs on increased use of natural gas for power generation along with national energy policies backed by the Obama Administration and West Virginia’s coal severance taxes.

Murray bought out the mines which were formerly owned and run for decades by Consol Energy. Consol shed all of its coal properties to concentrate on natural gas production.   Since buying the operations Murray had actually added jobs at each mine and even after the layoffs has a higher number of miners working than when they took over from Consol.

“We certainly can’t exist without each other,” Caputo said. “We just hope this is temporary and our members get back to work soon.”

Under the union contract the youngest miners are the first to be laid off and the callbacks will go to the oldest miners first.   Caputo said northern West Virginia until now had been somewhat insulated from the downward trend of the coal industry in recent years.

“Southern West Virginia has taken a hit here for quite some time and we’ve been a little more fortunate up here in the northern coalfields and been able to keep everybody working,” Caputo said. “Actually coal employment at Murray’s operations have increased since he’s taken over from Consol.”

There’s no indication from Murray Energy about how long the layoffs will last or how long it will take to deplete the stockpiles.