The future of the U.S. coal industry, and the cheap electricity it provides, will be
decided in the twists and turns of government policy, Roberts said. He ticked off a list:
Stiffer air-pollution standards beginning Jan. 1 under Phase II of the federal Clean
Air Act. The first stage of the law cost thousands of jobs in the high-sulfur coalfields
of northern Appalachia and the Midwest.
A looming global warming treaty that would limit developed countries’
carbon-dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuel, especially coal, while exempting
big producer-consumers like China and Brazil.
Environmental challenges to the legality of the industry’s most productive mining
techniques, especially the mountaintop-removal strip mining that has been the focus of
protests in West Virginia.
On these issues, the union known for its fierce opposition to coal operators has allied
itself with the industry, including longtime nemesis Arch Coal Inc. of St. Louis, the
nation’s second-largest coal producer.
The position disappointed environmental activists.
"Don’t they understand that this could mean more jobs?" asked Laura
Forman, spokeswoman for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "If they can’t
use mountaintop removal to strip it," she contends, "they’ll mine it
underground," a much more labor-intensive method.
Roberts said that idea "is ridiculous."
"If somebody could tell me how to mine this much coal with picks and shovels,
I’d be glad to hear it," he said. "But it can’t be don."
His first duty as a labor leader is to represent his members, he said.
"I have an obligation to side with my members, first, and second, some of these
environmentalists are living in a fantasy world," Roberts said. "I have to live
in the real world."
In the real world, coal prices have dropped steadily since the post-oil embargo peaks
of the late 1970s.
"Spot coal out of Logan County sold then for $100 a ton; now it’s down to
$20," he said. "If the price of coal would rise, you would see jobs being
re-created.
"Capitalist theory tells me that if the price is right, they will mine that coal,
but not before," he said.
Roberts also must confront the myriad other problems facing an industrial-age union at
the end of the 20th century: how to make his union grown while total employment
in its traditional industry is dwindling rapidly; and how to finance health care and
retirement for a growing pool of retirees.
According to the National Mining Association, the mean age of the American coal miner
in 1996 was 454. The miner had about 20 years of experience in an industry where the usual
retirement age under a union contract is 55.
Work-force reduction means there are few young miners. Between 1993 and 1998 alone, the
number of U.S. coal miners fell from 101,322 to an estimated 80,000, according to the
National Mining Association.
The personal profile of Roberts---52 and a Cabin Creek native---could be that of any
UMW member.
He is a sixth-generation coal miner, counting ancestors from Scotland and Wales, and he
lost both grandfathers to mining accidents. His parents, Evelyn and Cecil E. Roberts Sr.,
are UMW pensioners who still live at Cabin Creek.
In 1971, the younger Roberts went to work at Carbon Fuels’ No. 31 mine in
Winifred, after a stint in college and military service in Vietnam. Roberts became active
in his local union. After serving in several local and district jobs, he was elected vice
president of the international union in 1982 on a ticket headed by Richard Trumka.
He became UMW president in 1995, when Trumka was elected secretary-treasurer of the
AFL-CIO.
The challenges of his job have been considerable, Roberts said.
The union’s membership in its core industry is vastly diminished from its
pre-World War II peak of a quarter-million miners.
The UMW does not release membership statistics. But U.S. Energy Information
Administration data put the total of UMW-represented coal miners at 30,606 in 1997, the
most recent available. Other unions represent about 4,000 coal miners, the agency said,
while about 47,000 miners are non-union.
The union isn’t ignoring the growing number of non-union mining jobs.
Roberts returned to Cabin Creek recently for a rally, just before 85 workers at
non-union Day Mining Co. voted in the UMW after a long organizing campaign. He said the
UMW plans to organize other small, non-union operations in the area.
Because of the diminishing number of miners, the union has been organizing workers from
other industries in the UMW’s traditional strongholds.
For example, classified employees of the Harlan County School District voted Thursday
to join the union, becoming one of the first Kentucky school districts to do so.
UMW representatives are expected to attend the school board’s meeting next month
to discuss union dues and work out parts of the contract.
The union is also organizing ambulance drivers and health-care workers in southern West
Virginia and correctional officers in western Pennsylvania.
No stranger to a fight, Roberts said the job now for the union founded in 1890 is to
assure its survival in the 21st century. Where possible, he said, he has tried
to promote what he calls "a common-sense willingness to compromise," whether it
is improving environmental protection or eliminating workplace hazards.
But he won’t stand by "watching people who don’t need to lose their
jobs, lose them," he said. "It’s unfair, unwarranted and wrong."
