Designed To Fail: How Years Of Struggle Was Defeated In Minutes

So driving home I heard the announcement across my radio.  An announcement that sent my phone blowing up with many of a Facebook status expressing an array of feelings, from outrage to utter astonishment.  The announcement that Patriot Coal had won court approval of a proposal to reduce pensions and benefits to 13,000 unionized workers and retirees.  

Union Supporters in St. Louis

My first thought was not of outrage nor astonishment.  My first thought was. . ."They fought and died for nothing!"  I thought about how the people had gathered in St. Louis, and the numerous banners and yard signs around every neighborhood in my community, was an exercise in futility.  But then my thoughts quickly turned to hundreds and thousands of men who left their homes with their hunting guns under their arms in order to make a difference and a future for not only themselves, but for the generations of miners that would come after them.

Sid Hatfield

But the men I was thinking of didn't leave that morning of May 29th 2013, but on August 21st in 1921.  Armed men began gathering at Lens Creek Mountain, near Marmet., Four days later up to 13,000 had gathered and began marching towards Logan County. Impatient to get to the fighting, miners near St. Albans commandeered a Chesapeake and Ohio freight train, renamed by the miners as the 'Blue Steel Special', to meet up with the advanced column of marchers at Danville in Boone County on their way to Mingo County.  I thought about the year before how Sid Hatfield stood up against Baldwin–Felts agents in The Battle of Matewan.  My thoughts then turned to how his life ended on the McDowell County Courthouse steps, gunned down by the hitmen of Balwin-Felts. 

I then thought about those men who gathered up on the banks of the Kanawha River, I wondered if some of them had thought about if they knew they were gonna come back home, and wondered as they said goodbye to their children, if they said to themselves, what if this is the last time that they would ever speak to their children again.  Was the cause of their departure worth it?  Then I thought about the future they forged.  How by standing up and fighting for the cause of decent pay, and decent working conditions was worth it for them and the generations of miners that would come after them.

Fighting on Blair Mountain

I then thought about how scared they had to be marching up Blair Mountain.  Knowing that Don Chafin and his Logan County deputes were awaiting them, heavily armed, and highly motivated to eliminate the workers.

The exact death toll is not known, but it is estimated that 50 to 100 men died there.  Still to this day artifacts are still being found on the mountain from that battle.   Ironically, Arch Coal (one of Patriot's parent companies) holds mineral rights to the mountain, and is attempting to thwart attempts to save the mountain as a historical site, and strip mine it.

Patriot Coal Billboard

Just around that time on the mountain to my right I saw a Patriot Coal billboard, and thought how would have they reacted today, and wondered if the employees that worked for Patriot past and present was really proud of where they worked?  Could they be proud that through a Judges gavel, that the mission that so many of these men fought and died for was wiped away in few minutes?

How they could work for a company for 30 or even in some cases 40 to 50 years, and the promises that they made to you, was now null and void.  Heck, you dont even get the cheesy Gold Watch!

So just how could a company formed in 2007 by Peabody Coal as a spin off profit by giving Patriot 16 percent of its assets and 40 percent of its retiree liability.Then to make matters worse Patriot acquired more retiree liabilities when it bought Magnum Coal in 2008. Magnum had been cut from a similar cloth, as Arch Coal created it in 2005, giving it 12 percent of its assets and 97 percent of its retiree health-care liabilities, NOT BE DESIGNED TO FAIL?  I thought, Somewhere there has to be a first year business student looking at this deal and scoffing at the notion of starting a business with this makeup!

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kathy A. Surratt-States

The UMWA has said in court papers, Patriot has more than three times as many retirees as miners, and 90 percent of its retirees never worked for Patriot.  Patriot has said in court papers that it is considering whether the 2007 transaction that created it “constituted an actual or constructive fraudulent transfer” that could recoup money to be shared among all its creditors. It says the spinoff rid Peabody of $600 million in health-care and environmental liabilities

So was this company designed to fail?  According to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kathy A. Surratt-States "Maybe not. Maybe."  Which led me to slam my steering wheel in disbelief.  On top of that, she wrote in the summery "Patriot's executives may have "thought the liabilities were manageable." She also noted that while "unions generally try to bargain for the best deal of their members ... there is likely some responsibility to be absorbed for demanding benefits that the employer cannot realistically fund in perpetuity."  So did I hear this correctly?  Did she just blame the Union for the collapse of this company?  A company built upon massive retirees from 3 different companies, negotiated and agreed upon by said companies! That is like saying that I sold you a car or a service, and agreed that I would provide a service, then turning around and saying that your responsible for me not delivering my promises and/or services because your stipulations, that I agreed to, was not realistic. . . . REALLY?

As I drove past the Boone County courthouse, the historical relevance of that building was not lost on me, as it was in that general area where the battle became fully engulfed.  There a long meeting where agreements were made convincing the miners to return home.  But when reports surfaced that Sheriff Chafin's men were deliberately shooting union sympathizers in the town of Sharples, just north of Blair Mountain—and that families had been caught in crossfire during the skirmishes. Infuriated, the miners turned back towards Blair Mountain.

Which got me thinking, hopefully this is not the end of this, hopefully the people's voices will be heard.  Will the public outrage over this be the turning point in the slow decline of the Coal Barron's domination over their workers?  Will this be our turning around point?

UMWA President Cecil Roberts said the union would appeal Wednesday's ruling to U.S. District Court. Roberts called Wednesday's ruling "wrong, unfair and fails to fully recognize the coming wave of human suffering that will be experienced by thousands of people throughout the coalfields.

I hope and pray that this will not be the end.  I pray that the sacrifices of miners everywhere will not go for nothing.  I pray that this terrible decision is not the final chapter written by generations of miners that started in Matewan, West Virginia in 1920.  I pray that years of struggle will not be defeated in a mere matter of minutes and a judges gavel.  The moment has arrived, its time to turn back to Blair Mountain and fight.  Not with guns and violence, but with what we have attained though those men's sacrifice.  Decency and Respect, and not allow corporate America to steal the last remaining thing we have left.

God Bless and Good Luck. . . . To us all!