The Pittston Coal strike was a United States strike action led by the United Mine Workers Union (UMWA) against the Pittston Coal Company, nationally headquartered in Pittston, Pennsylvania. The strike, which lasted from April 5, 1989 to February 20, 1990, resulted from Pittston's termination of health care benefits for approximately 1,500 retirees, widows, and disabled miners. The strikers also cited the refusal of the company to contribute to the benefit trust established in 1950 for miners who retired before 1974 and the refusal of the company to bargain in good faith as grounds for their action. The company cited declining coal prices, decreasing demand, and recession as its reason for limiting health care benefits.
The strike affected production in mines mostly in Virginia, but a few in West Virginia and Kentucky as well. Mine workers and their families engaged in acts of civil disobedience, work stoppage, protests, and rallies. At its peak in June 1989, the strike involved approximately 2,000 miners daily staying at Camp Solidarity with thousands more sending donations and holding wildcat walkouts that involved around 40,000 people. The participation of women in the labor action through the ad hoc formation of the Daughters of Mother Jones—reminiscent of the early days of union organization—proved an essential element of the successful strike.
Background
During the 1980s, the price, adjusted for inflation, of coal declined, which put economic pressure on coal companies. Many of them began employing non-union workers, who would work for less money, to be able to maintain a profit.
By 1987, Pittston Coal had dropped from being the 7th-largest coal operator in the United States to the 15th, and coal production was at an all-time low. The Pittston Coal Company had worked with the Bituminous Coal Operators (BCOA), which regulated health and retirement benefits offered to Pittston workers. The Pittston mines continued to lose money, however, and in 1987, the Pittston Coal Company terminated its contract with the BCOA to establish its own health and retirement benefit contract with the UMWA. Through collective bargaining, the UMWA and the Pittston Coal Company established two different retirement plans for the miners: one for those who retired before 1974 and one for those who retired after 1974 in the hopes that would help the company gain a profit.
In 1988, Pittston still felt the strain of providing benefits, with the cost per miner increasing by $3,746 from the 1979 amount. The company was still going into debt and having a difficult time paying for the miners' benefits. To avoid losing more money, Pittston doubled health deductibles, lowered the coverage from 100% to 80%, and discontinued benefits to miners who retired before 1974. That change in the health care plan was still not enough for the company to gain a profit and so it decided to keep the mines running 24 hours a day and seven days a week, with no overtime for the workers. Pittston also did away with successorship clauses, which meant that the miners of Pittston would not have job security or transfer of job rights in mines that were leased or sold.
Miners were now working longer hours with more expensive health care plans, and the mine was losing no production time because it was never closed.
The UMWA took action against Pittston's new plan of operation and offered to reach a settlement. The coal company stayed quiet, and when the time came to renew the health care and retirement benefit plans for its workers, Pittston refused. The refusal to renew the contract left about 1,500 people without health care. The people were not just miners employed by Pittston but also families, widows, and disabled miners in the Virginia area.
UMWA declares strike
In April 1989, after the miners had worked 14 months without benefits, UMWA President Richard Trumka declared a strike against the Pittston Coal Company. Around 2,000 UMWA members who worked for Pittston walked out of the mines and reported to the picket line. Pittston responded to the strike by hiring replacement workers. To ensure that production would continue, Pittston also had help from the state police to escort the replacement miners and coal trucks across the picket line.
The UMWA used civil disobedience to attract attention to the needs of the miners. The union stressed that all actions of the strike had to remain peaceful. However, many miners still used violent methods during the strike. The strike gained the news media's attention. People came from all across the country to support the UMWA's cause, and around 50,000 people went to southwestern Virginia during the course of the strike.