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Logan County Coal Mine Warns Of Layoffs In Wake Of Lawsuit
By George Hohmann, Business Editor Charleston Daily Mail
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May 10, 2007
The president of Magnum Coal Co. has notified employees there will be layoffs if an injunction is issued prohibiting its Apogee Coal Co. from using valley fills at its Guyan Surface Mine near Yolyn in Logan County.
The United Mine Workers has told Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., that 281 jobs at the mine are at risk.
Larry Malone, a spokesman for Magnum Coal, said county commissioners from throughout the southwestern coalfields, including Kanawha Commission President Kent Carper, were scheduled to meet with Gov. Joe Manchin today about the issue. Logan County Commission President Arthur Kirkendoll is leading the group, Malone said.
A rally is planned for the early evening of May 17 in Logan, Malone said.
Paul Vining, in a May 2 letter to employees, noted that Apogee received a valley fill permit in March from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its Guyan Surface Mine. Vining pointed out that the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the West Virginia Highland Conservancy and the Coal River Mountain Watch have a longstanding lawsuit pending against the corps that challenges the permitting process.
Although a federal district court judge had issued a ruling blocking the corps from issuing such permits, the federal Court of Appeals in Richmond overturned that decision last year.
On April 25 the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the other plaintiffs filed a motion for an injunction to block Apogee from proceeding with work authorized under the permit. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for May 31 before Judge Joseph Goodwin in Charleston.
Vining wrote that if Goodwin issues an injunction, "the company regrettably will have no choice but to begin laying off a significant number of our employees at the Apogee operations.
"We are very troubled by the fact that we have been put in this position," Vining wrote. "A lawyer for OVEC recently claimed that 'we're not here to take away anyone's jobs' -- yet OVEC's actions speak louder than their words.
"We intend to expend the necessary resources to vigorously protect Apogee, its employees and the communities in West Virginia in which we conduct business," Vining concluded.
On the same day Vining wrote the letter, Apogee General Manager Kent DesRocher sent the United Mine Workers of America a federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) letter notifying the union that if an injunction is issued on May 31, layoffs would begin June 1.
"The employment losses at Guyan will be permanent," DesRocher told Ernest Woods, president of United Mine Workers Local 5958.
DesRocher's letter prompted Woods to write Byrd.
An injunction "has the potential to immediately effect the employment of approximately 281 people and if you multiply that by six, which are support jobs for the 281, you have the potential for a negative impact on approximately 1,686 other jobs," Woods wrote.
"We are asking that you sign on to help us attain these permits because we are responsible miners and comply with all state and federal regulations concerning mining and post-mining," Woods wrote.
A spokesperson for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition could not be immediately reached for comment.
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