Jobs bright spot: Coal is hiring

Even as a wave of job cuts afflicts workers nationwide, mine operators in coal country are offering free health insurance, gas money, stock and bonuses to lure enough miners as coal fetches record prices.

Alpha Natural Resources announced Thursday that it would dole out 25 shares of stock to each of its 3,600 employees in hopes that they'll stay put. It will pay bonuses of up to $9,000 to miners who stay three years, and will pay even more to members of highly trained rescue squads.

Massey Energy Co., the nation's No. 4 coal producer, recently offered guaranteed three-year contracts to individual miners.

Those companies, both based in Virginia, are trying to fend off the employee poaching that rippled through the industry during a price spike in 2005 and 2006.

Driven by the weak dollar, high ocean freight rates and shipping bottlenecks, prices for higher-energy coal from Eastern states have jumped even higher this year. They've more than doubled to about $95 a ton for utility-grade coal, and $200 or more a ton for coking coal used by steel manufacturers.

"Every able-bodied, drug-free coal miner is working today if he wants," Alpha Chief Executive Mike Quillen said. "You basically have to try to steal them from somebody else."

Alpha, Massey and others are looking for more miners because they're boosting production to take advantage of the price spike. Massey, for instance, has set an ambitious goal of increasing output 25 percent from mines in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia by 2010. Massey plans to open new mines at the rate of one every 17 days this year, and hire 300 to 400 new miners.

Government estimates put the number of U.S. miners at about 83,000, including about 47,500 at underground mines. National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich said the industry needs 50,000 new miners to replace retirees and support growth.

Labor is a bigger problem for underground mines, which still dominate Appalachia. Surface miners are easier to find, because skills such as driving big trucks and operating heavy machinery easily translate from other industries, such as construction, Quillen said.

In underground coal mining, losing veteran employees typically cuts productivity. That quickly pumps up per-ton costs and eats into profits.

Quillen said incentives such as $30 a month for gas are being used to retain staff.

Quillen said many coal miners drive 60 to 80 miles each way to work, which is a one of two major reasons for turnover.

The other is a better shift elsewhere.

"Energy is just such a huge issue for America going forward," he said.