We welcome you to JobBank USA and hope your job hunting experience
is a pleasant one. We hope you find our resources useful.
November 7, 2007
CARLINVILLE - The Monterey No. 1 Mine here may be sold and layoffs imposed within the next two months.
That’s what the coal miners are thinking after recently receiving notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, said Tuesday. The act requires employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and mass layoffs. It also applies to sales expected to result in closings or layoffs.
“That (receiving the notices) has led to speculation the mine has been sold,” Smith said, noting that owner ExxonMobil Corp. has had the mine on the market for more than a year.
A spokeswoman for the company, Margaret Ross, confirmed that a sale is expected to be finalized before the end of the year. She declined to say who is negotiating to buy the mine.
“Good-faith, confidential negotiations continue regarding the potential sale,” she said. “The company anticipates negotiations will be successfully completed and the sale finalized before year-end 2007.”
However, the same scenario was discussed about this time last year, and Ross said ExxonMobil “reserves the right to consider alternative disposition of the property should the ongoing sale negotiations fail to reach closure.”
“Employees who work at the No. 1 mine were informed of the progress and outlook for sale negotiations and notified, in compliance the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, of potential alternative disposition of the asset should negotiations stall,” Ross said.
The number of people who work at the mine was not available.
Neither Ross nor Smith said they knew of a reported recent roof collapse at the mine.
An employee at Monterey who did not want to be identified declined to elaborate other than to say no one was working in the area where a section of roof collapsed.
North of Springfield, at the Viper Mine near Elkhart, a large section of roof came down inside the mine on Saturday, prompting the entire operation to be shut down as a precaution. There were no injuries, and the mine, which remained closed Tuesday, is expected to reopen soon.
Email This Page!