It’s been four months since over 1,000 union coal miners at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, Alabama, went on strike to demand a fair contract that includes better pay, benefits, and more time for workers to spend with their families. Faced with intransigence from the company and increasing hostility on the picket line, a caravan of striking miners and their supporters came back to New York City to voice their demands and hold a rally on July 28 in front of the NYC headquarters of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and Warrior Met’s biggest investor.
Citing unfair labor practices at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, Alabama, 1,100 coal miners with the United Mine Workers of America went on strike on April 1. One week later, workers voted down a tentative agreement with Warrior Met, opting to stay on the picket line for as long as it takes to get a better deal from their employer, which brought in a net income of over $300 million in 2019. The new TRNN series “Battleground Brookwood,” will cover the ongoing strike at Warrior Met Coal and highlight the struggles of mine workers and their families for safety, dignity, and respect.
A few months back in April, around 1,100 coal miners at Warrior Met Coal in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, went on strike. After the bargaining unit with the United Mine Workers of America reached a tentative agreement with the company last week, the membership overwhelmingly rejected it and opted to remain on strike. In order to cover this important strike and spread these workers’ stories, reporters teamed up with Jacob Morrison, a union organizer and cohost of “The Valley Labor Report,” Alabama’s only weekly labor radio talk show, and Alabama musician Lee Bains III of The Glory Fires. Morrison and Bains went down to the Warrior Met Coal picket line to talk with striking miners, play some music, and show solidarity. In this special episode of “Working People,” the team compiled clips from Bains’ live musical performance, as well as Morrison’s interviews on the picket line and at the local UMWA union hall.
