Members of the Mine Workers (UMWA) are rallying in St. Louis today, encircling the headquarters of Peabody Energy, as part of ongoing efforts to make the company and associated companies live up to the obligations they made to their workers. While the union reached an agreement with Patriot Coal to make sure that retired miners who primarily worked for Peabody receive those benefits, the long-term funding for those benefits has not yet been secured. Those health care costs were spun off into Patriot, which subsequently filed for bankruptcy. Today's rally is aimed at making Peabody live up to its obligations and fund health care for its retirees.

“The Patriot Coal chapter of this fight is behind us, now it’s time for Peabody Energy and Arch Coal to meet their responsibilities,” said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. “This fight is anything but over. Executives of these companies have to understand that miners and their families know the real story of what happened here—and because of our efforts, so do millions of working people across the country. Men and women worked underground for decades to earn these benefits. These companies are profitable, and they must step up to meet their obligations to these retirees.”

UMWA also won a court ruling in August establishing Peabody’s continued obligations to 3,100 miners and dependents, whose benefits remained with Peabody at the time of the Patriot spinoff.

Arch Coal, another profitable company, dumped its retiree obligations into a company called Magnum Coal in 2005. Magnum was subsequently acquired by Patriot, which entered bankruptcy reorganization last year. 

Video of the rally can be found at Fairness at Patriot.

More details about the events and the bigger fight can be found on Twitter by following the hashtags #FairnessatPatriot and #UMWA or the Twitter accounts @befairatPatriot and @MineWorkers.