Tuesday marked the second day that coal miners in Kentucky participated in a peaceful protest. As reported by CNN, miners blocked the tracks of a coal train in protest after Blackjewel, a coal company filing for bankruptcy, left almost 400 workers in a lurch. Basically: no work, no pay, no 401(k) contributions, and no health benefits—for an entire month.
There was no warning prior to the bankruptcy announcement.
On Monday, the situation escalated. Someone noticed a train headed to go and pick up the coal. Word spread fast, and people showed up to block the tracks. Angry (and understandably so) that they’ve gone unpaid for their labor, only to see the coal be sold, the miners began what turned into a more than 24-hour protest.
"We're doing without money, food and everything else before our kids are starting back to school. We can't even get clothes or nothing else for them, so it was like a kick in the face," Chris Rowe explained to CNN affiliate WYMT.
"That's basically what it was.“
And while unemployment compensation might seem a short-term solution, it, unfortunately, isn’t. Bankruptcy makes this situation especially tricky for workers, as Cumberland Mayor Charles Raleigh admitted.
"The miners can't draw unemployment because they technically were not fired and they didn't quit," Mayor Raleigh said. "They can't get medical insurance, so they are stuck between a rock and a hard place."
Jeff Willig, one of the first miners to join the protest on Monday, told WYMT that his family is thousands of dollars in the red because of this ordeal. "My wife picks my check up, pays a few bills,” Willig explained. “Next thing we know our account's three thousand in the negative and our accounts frozen.”
"It's anger, you know. We mine that out and here you are going to sit here and load trains. We don't know nothing, we have no idea of what's going on," Willig, who has a wife and six children, continued.
Attorney General Andy Beshear made a statement on Tuesday about the situation:
"Blackjewel failed to pay them for weeks of hard work and the way the company filed for bankruptcy prevents miners from accessing their 401ks, making it even harder for them to feed their families during this trying time. What this company is doing to them is wrong -- and I am doing everything I can through my office to help these families. Every Kentuckian should see their plight and support them."
You can check out a clip of the protest below:
At a time when 40% of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency expense without going into debt, going any length of time without pay or benefits is unacceptable. Going a month without pay—especially with virtually no notice—is inhumane. The miners are entitled to their pay for the coal they mined—for the work they already did—and their protest will, hopefully, move along a solution.