Judge rules coal company can eliminate Kemmerer retirees' health care, union contract

Retired coal miners from Kemmerer likely lost their company health benefits Friday when a judge decided that Westmoreland Coal Co. could eliminate retirement health care and a union contract in order to sell the Kemmerer coal mine to a Virginia businessman.

Judge David R. Jones of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston said he would not enter a final order on the matter until Tuesday, giving the United Mine Workers of America and the coal company time to negotiate a deal.

Miners who had gone down to Texas to plead their case were disheartened by the ruling but said they would continue fighting even if it led to a strike.

“I have very mixed emotions about it,” Cullen Pace, a coal miner at Kemmerer, said of the judge’s decision. “We really got our a—— handed to us, but I’m hopeful in the fact that we can get a new contract.”

Read more: https://trib.com/business/energy/judge-rules-coal-company-can-eliminate-kemmerer-retirees-health-care/article_8ff06bf6-ac06-556c-b7eb-17c87d6fce20.html