Rank-and-file members of the United Mine Workers of America voted Friday to approve a proposal for a new contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, whose major member company is Murray Energy.
According a statement issued by the UMW, 60.3 percent voted in favor of the new collective bargaining agreement at six Murray Energy mines in West Virginia and Ohio.
"This was a tough vote for our members to take," UMW International President Cecil E. Roberts said in a news release. "The coal industry is in a depression and more than 50 companies have filed for bankruptcy in the last few years. Thousands have been laid off. The pressures on those who are still working are tremendous and growing.
"But despite all that, our members took a courageous stand by voting to try to keep their company operating while maintaining the best wages, benefits and working conditions in the American coal industry," Roberts said.
The new five-year agreement keeps wages where they are and includes the opportunity to renegotiate wages after three years, according to the release. Active and retired workers will see health care benefits remain intact for themselves and their dependents, with slight increases in out-of-pocket costs but no monthly premiums.
Initially reduced were total days off, but many of those days will be regained over the course of the agreement.
The UMW said it was important that Murray Energy agreed to remain in the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan.
"In addition to the courage shown by our membership, I want to express my thanks to all those local union, district and international leaders who worked so hard on achieving this agreement," Roberts said in the release. "They did outstanding work."
Murray Energy said in a statement that the agreement would be in effect from Aug. 15, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2021 and would cover the Ohio County Coal Company that operates the Ohio County Mine, the Marshall County Coal Company that operates the Marshall County Mine, the Marion County Coal Company that operates the Marion County Mine, the Harrison County Coal Company that operates the Harrison County Mine, and the Monongalia County Coal Company that operates the Monongalia County Mine.
"This is a good day for Murray American's UMWA-represented employees, as this agreement will go a long way toward ensuring that our coal mines can keep operating, and our employees working, even in the current depressed coal marketplace," Robert Murray, chief executive officer of Murray American and chairman of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, said in a statement.
In June, UMW members rejected a previous proposal for a new contract with the BCOA. Union leaders and Murray Energy were hoping to finalize a new collective bargaining agreement prior to the expiration of their current deal at the end of the year.
Murray has said that contract would cover about 1,500 active UMW employees at its mines in Harrison, Marion, Marshall, Monongalia and Ohio counties, as well about 200 workers at its Ohio Valley Coal Co. and Ohio Valley Transloading operations. The mines are mostly the large underground operations that Murray purchased from CONSOL Energy in late 2013.
Murray has previously warned that finalizing a new contract with the UMW is a crucial part of his company's plan to avoid financial default, and has hinted that without a deal he might consider bankruptcy court protection.