Jack McReynolds, UMWA District 12 Local 2420 President, spoke with Cathy Talbott of the People’s Tribune about the fight for miners’ pensions, jobs, healthcare, homelessness, and clean water. Below are excerpts from that interview.
“I went to a rally with about 2,000 people in Evansville, IN (December 4) about our pensions. There’s a bill that’s been held up by Mitch McConnell for a year but now he’s on board since Kentucky voted in Beshear for governor and we think we’ve got that won. We had the same problem with our healthcare three years ago but got that won, so if we can get this passed we’re in good shape. There’s 80,000 pensioners and families dependent on them. President Truman in 1947 signed a promise (Krug-Lewis Agreement) guaranteeing us pensions and healthcare for life if we agreed to not strike and keep up production during the war.
Trump told people in West Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama that he was going to open up the mines. And they believed him. But there’s more mines closed. Now they’re seeing he’s not doing what he said. I personally think there’s going to be a blue wave this election. They elected democratic governors in Kansas, Kentucky, Virginia. All those counties that went for Mitch McConnell in Kentucky went blue and that turned his head. I think that’s why McConnell put our (pension) bill on his desk to bring up in the Senate. There’s more people getting organized than there’s been in 40 years.
There aren’t any union mines here now. There’s not many mines at all. Automation has changed all that. Murray owns what we call a scab mine in Galatia and he’s discharging mercury into the water; they don’t give a damn. [Murray Energy filed bankruptcy in October.] He’s friends with Trump. People got to get involved. Trump ain’t gonna do nothing. I’m not for fracking, either. It goes into the underground water streams and destroys the water. I can’t prove it. . . .I don’t have the equipment to test it. We got to get involved and put pressure on our representatives, both state and federal.
We gotta create jobs for people. The homeless. . . a lot of them are veterans. And 75% of those in prisons are veterans. Women and children being separated [at the border]. . . and another thing is the children in cages. . . I call them concentration camps. That 16-year-old who died recently. . . It’s looking like Nazi Germany.
We gotta have new legislation for Black Lung. What we have now isn’t working. I’ve got Black Lung-stage 2. The government says I’m not disabled. After we get this pension deal taken care of we’re gonna go for that. We need to work on electing people who will support black lung benefits.
Another thing is these “right-to-work” laws. People need to understand that it means right to work for less. These non-union mines here, they’re working in water with live cables laying in the water. [If you get injured] the compensation laws now favor the company. When I started as a young man, an older miner told me these companies would trade any one of us for half a car of coal.
This pension bill now is very important. We were promised. Have people call their senators and ask them to support the Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019.
