UMWA continues fight in Patriot bankruptcy

HENDERSON, Ky. – United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts told a large crowd in Kentucky Tuesday the UMWA won’t back down in the face of a federal bankruptcy judge’s ruling.

The large crowd packed the courthouse lawn of the small western Kentucky town in a rally similar to those the union has staged numerous times in St. Louis and Charleston, W.Va. But it was the first rally since Judge Kathy A. Surratt-States, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, ruled Patriot could break the present collective bargaining agreement with the UMWA.

In her ruling, Judge Surratt-States encouraged the union not to strike the company. Roberts said for the time being a strike would be “high risk” since it could put Patriot out of business.