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This article originally provided by
The Charleston Gazette
Court order blocks extension of mine
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Hobet Mining has warned employees that a
court order blocking a new permit may cost some of them their jobs,
but company and union officials weren't saying exactly when those
layoffs might start or how many workers could be affected.
United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts vowed to "continue to
support all efforts to defend the jobs at Hobet through the legal
process and elsewhere."
"The UMWA is not going to stand idly by and watch all that happen,"
Roberts said in a news release. "We have repeatedly said that we
will do whatever we need to do to preserve our members' jobs, no
matter where they work. That's what we're going to do at Hobet."
Hobet apparently issued layoff notices to all of the more than 350
workers at its Hobet 21 mountaintop removal complex along the
Boone-Lincoln county border.
By law, companies must give workers at least 60 days notice before
closing under certain circumstances. The law is known as the Worker
Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN.
But union spokesman Phil Smith said UMW officials were told layoffs
could begin in "a week or two" and "within a year, the whole place
will be shut down."
Mark Schroeder, chief financial officer of Hobet parent company
Patriot Coal, could not immediately say how many layoff notices were
issued or when those layoffs might start.
"It would not be all 350 employees," Schroeder said. "It's more of a
down-the-road issue."
Controversy over the potential Hobet layoffs began to gear up Monday
afternoon, after U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers issued a
temporary restraining order that blocked a permit company officials
want to use to extend the mining operation.
Lawyers for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and three
other groups sought the court order to halt any damage to streams at
the site until Chambers could hold a full hearing on their new
lawsuit over the project, known as Hobet 22.
Late last week, environmental group lawyers filed that suit, arguing
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not properly consider the
mine's impact or give the public adequate opportunities to comment
on the proposal.
An appeal of a broader, March 2007 ruling by Chambers on mountaintop
removal is to be heard by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Richmond, Va., in late September. The issues in the new Hobet case
are similar, and could be resolved by the appeals court decision.
Corps permit records say Hobet 22 would employ 75 workers, and mine
2.4 million tons of coal over a three-year-period.
Smith, the UMW spokesman, acknowledged that coal companies across
the region are complaining about worker shortages, and any laid-off
Hobet employees might be able to find other mining jobs. But, Smith
said, newspaper classified ads searching for experienced miners are
offering work mostly at non-union mines, jobs that are not
attractive to UMW members.
"I'm not saying they couldn't find other employment," Smith said.
"It would just be substandard employment."
In West Virginia, there are only two significant surface mines where
workers are unionized, Hobet 21 and Patriot's Guyan Mine in Logan
County, according to federal government records. Unionized strip
mines account for about 13 percent of the state's strip-mined coal,
the records show.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.
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