UMWA responds to Obama coal bankruptcy statement

The United Mine Workers Association has responded and their website is down due to overload of bandwidth, with a little help of Google cache here's the text:

McCain campaign’s last minute distortion of Obama’s coal record an act of desperation

date:

November 3, 2008

For immediate release?:

United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today:

“Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have once again demonstrated that they are willing to say anything and do anything to win this election. Their latest twisting of the truth is about coal and some comments Sen. Obama made last January about the future use of coal in America.

“Here is what the McCain campaign left out of Sen. Obama’s actual words: ‘But this notion of no coal, I think, is an illusion. Because the fact of the matter is, is that right now we are getting a lot of our energy from coal. And China is building a coal-powered plant once a week. So what we have to do then is figure out how can we use coal without emitting greenhouse gases and carbon. And how can we sequester that carbon and capture it.’

“Sen. Obama has been consistent with that message not just in the coalfields, but everywhere else he goes as well. Despite what the McCain campaign and some far right-wing blogs would have Americans believe, Sen. Obama has been and remains a tremendous supporter of coal and the future of coal.

“I noted that Sen. McCain even went so far yesterday as to say he has always been a supporter of coal. I wonder, then, how he can justify his statement at a Senate hearing in 2000 that, ‘In a perfect world we would like to transition away from coal entirely,’ and his leading role in sponsoring legislation in 2003 that would have wiped out 78 percent of all coal production in America?

“Fortunately, UMWA members, their families and their friends and neighbors in the coalfields know all too well what is going on here. They’re not going to fall for it, and we urge others throughout America who care about coal to review what the candidates’ records on coal actually are. We are confident that once they do, and once they see the many other benefits to working families of voting for Sen. Obama, they will make the right choice for themselves and their families

West Virgina mine workers take a day of protest against anti-Obama campaign

Mine workers are tough, I remember being at Solidarity Day in DC in the 90's and meeting quite a few with camouflaged UMWA shirts which said "victory" in the middle of flames, in memory of a strike win in which shot were fired on all sides. Yes, as we have seen in a recent episode of Morgan Spurlock's 30Days, where the star had to live for 30 as a noobie coal miner, US coal miners are tough as nails.

So what happened when the NRA showed up unannounced with video camera's in hand, looking for workers to bad mouth Barack Obama, the candidate who their union has endorsed?

The workers took action, according to The State Journal :

Blacksville #2 Mine Idle After 440 Workers Stay Home
Posted Monday, September 29, 2008 ; 06:20 PM
Updated Saturday, October 4, 2008 ; 03:08 PM
Story by Courtney Dunn

Watch Story Video

UMWA Workers Took Memorial Day in Protest

BLACKSVILLE -- Coal production at a mine in Monongalia County came to a halt today when every union miner stayed home, as part of a political protest.

It was an idle day Monday at the Blacksville #2 Mine.

More than 440 workers who are members of the United Mine Workers of America took what's called a Memorial Day instead of going to work.

Union officials say they took the day to protest after a film crew from the National Rifle Assocation showed up at the Consol mine last week to interview union workers.

They say the crew tried to get union coal miners to speak out against Barack Obama.

The UMWA has endorsed the democratic presidential nominee.

"This was a surprise visit," explained VP Local 1702, Safety Chairman Eric Greathouse, "and a lot of the miners felt this was a direct slap in the face of the union because they were trying to coerce our people into saying things against Barack Obama."

"Consol doesn't let anybody on their property - never," said Safety Committee Member Mark Dorsey, "And for them to let the NRA come on the property and solicit our membership was totally uncalled for. We made our endorsement to our political process and we didn't bother them and they shouldn't be harassing our membership over this."

The workers will return to work at 12:01 Tuesday morning.

A spokesperson for Consol said the company is not issuing any comment on the day.

Cecil Roberts, the president of the parent union, explains in The Charleston Daily Mail, on 9/29:

Our members' reaction to this event has little to do with the NRA itself, or even its film crew. The NRA is free to say whatever it wants about any candidate for office, and has never shown a reluctance to do so, whether what it says about those candidates is true or not.

Likewise, our members are free to say whatever they want about any subject they want, and we have not and do not seek to limit their right to do that.

Anyone who has ever spent any time at a mine portal at shift change knows UMWA members - indeed, all coal miners - are not shy about speaking their minds.

Let me be clear: It was not the union leadership that called for a Memorial Day at the mine, it was the members who work at that mine who asked the leadership to call for it.

That's how the process for Memorial Days works in the UMWA.

And continues:

You ask if the union is "for miners or Obama?" It is precisely because we are for miners that we are also for Barack Obama. Here's why:

• We believe miners have a right to a safe and healthy job, where the government agencies that are supposed to be watchdogs for safety actually enforce the law instead of coddle the mine operators. McCain has not said one word about the outrageous lack of enforcement of mine safety and health laws in the Bush administration, while Barack Obama has consistently promised to appoint someone to be in charge of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration who will put miners' health and safety first.
• We believe miners and their families have a right to health care and retirement security. McCain's proposals to tax health care benefits and privatize Social Security puts both of those rights at significant risk.
• We believe miners have a right to a job. McCain has, on more than one occasion, written legislation in Congress that would have meant drastic cuts in coal production in Appalachia and a corresponding elimination of thousands of coal miners' jobs.

Obama has consistently said he supports developing the clean coal technology we need to use coal to generate power in America for decades to come.

There are dozens more reasons why the members of our union voted, through our nationwide internal political action process, to endorse Obama for president.

National polls indicate that more and more Americans, including our friends and neighbors in West Virginia, agree with us that at a time when millions of working families are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and gas in their vehicles, our nation needs new leadership that will be a clean break from the failed policies of the Bush administration and its sidekick, John McCain.

Picture from WSAZ Channel 3

More Related stories from around the net:

• Mine Workers Protest Anti-Obama Ad NY Times
• West Virginia miners, Ralph Stanley stand up for Obama Harry's Place
• UMW defends Obama, shuts down mine Politico
• UMW Plans Stoppage Over NRA Filming WSAZ Channel 3
  

Creator of Super-Size Me trying to make ends meet as a rookie coal miner on FX

Morgan Spurlock, the creative genius and main character of Super-Size Me, is going to try to live for 30 days as a rookie coal miner in the United States. I missed it, it's on the cable channel FX, Tuesdays at 10:00 and 11:00PM, but it is going to be rerun Friday and Sunday at 11:00PM. You can check the schedule

The show is called 30 Days, where Mr. Spurlock and other willing people try to live the lives of other people for 30 Days, from the 30 days site at FX

To kick off the third season of 30 Days, series creator Morgan Spurlock returns to his home state of West Virginia, to work as a rookie apprentice coalminer known as a "redhat" for 30 days.
Morgan goes to Bolt, West Virginia and lives with Dale and Sandy Lusk. Dale, the supervisor of the mine where Morgan works, has mined coal for 35 years and introduces Morgan to a miner's way of life. Morgan gains an understanding of the financial benefits that draw people to coal mining, but also learns, first hand, the dangerous conditions that miners must face every day.

As a new miner, Morgan is assigned much of the grunt work, including plastering, building wooden roof supports, shoveling coal and hauling heavy equipment. On his days off, Morgan leaves the mine to examine some of the bigger issues surrounding the coal industry. He meets with Peggy Cohen, 36, the daughter of a miner killed in 2006 in a Sago, West Virginia mine explosion. Morgan also talks to both coal industry executives and environmentalists about surface mining and mountain-top removal to gain perspective on the pros and cons of an industry that provides the U.S. with the raw materials for 50% of our electricity.

The second episode will have Ray Crockett, of NFL Denver Broncos fame, live for 30 day in a wheelchair, in honor of friend and former teammate, Mike Utley, who was involved in a play that left him paralyzed.

Catch it if you can, a huge thanks to Mike Hall from the AFL-CIO Web Blog for writing this up yesterday, wish I noticed it sooner.

Creator of Super-Size Me trying to make ends meet as a rookie coal miner on FX

Morgan Spurlock, the creative genius and main character of Super-Size Me, is going to try to live for 30 days as a rookie coal miner in the United States. I missed it, it's on the cable channel FX, Tuesdays at 10:00 and 11:00PM, but it is going to be rerun Friday and Sunday at 11:00PM. You can check the schedule

The show is called 30 Days, where Mr. Spurlock and other willing people try to live the lives of other people for 30 Days, from the 30 days site at FX

To kick off the third season of 30 Days, series creator Morgan Spurlock returns to his home state of West Virginia, to work as a rookie apprentice coalminer known as a "redhat" for 30 days.
Morgan goes to Bolt, West Virginia and lives with Dale and Sandy Lusk. Dale, the supervisor of the mine where Morgan works, has mined coal for 35 years and introduces Morgan to a miner's way of life. Morgan gains an understanding of the financial benefits that draw people to coal mining, but also learns, first hand, the dangerous conditions that miners must face every day.

As a new miner, Morgan is assigned much of the grunt work, including plastering, building wooden roof supports, shoveling coal and hauling heavy equipment. On his days off, Morgan leaves the mine to examine some of the bigger issues surrounding the coal industry. He meets with Peggy Cohen, 36, the daughter of a miner killed in 2006 in a Sago, West Virginia mine explosion. Morgan also talks to both coal industry executives and environmentalists about surface mining and mountain-top removal to gain perspective on the pros and cons of an industry that provides the U.S. with the raw materials for 50% of our electricity.

The second episode will have Ray Crockett, of NFL Denver Broncos fame, live for 30 day in a wheelchair, in honor of friend and former teammate, Mike Utley, who was involved in a play that left him paralyzed.

Catch it if you can, a huge thanks to Mike Hall from the AFL-CIO Web Blog for writing this up yesterday, wish I noticed it sooner.