Coal company that hired former Blackjewel miners idles KY mines, lays off workers
A coal company that purchased many Kentucky mines from Blackjewel LLC, which made headlines this summer when it issued cold checks to hundreds of miners and sparked a protest in Harlan County, has laid off some of the miners it hired in the wake of Blackjewel’s bankruptcy.
State Rep. Angie Hatton, D-Whitesburg, said she heard from several miners that Kopper Glo had idled its mines until at least Dec. 26. Between 100 and 150 miners work at the idled mines, she said.
Many of the workers at the Kopper Glo mines had previously worked for Blackjewel, she said.
“I can only imagine how devastating that is,” Hatton said. “We’ve all been through it. We’ve all gone through unexpected layoffs, and it’s just extra devastating being so close to Christmas time.”
Coleen Tennington, whose husband, Darrell, worked as a repairman at Kopper Glo’s Darby mine, said he was laid of Friday morning when he arrived at work.
The company told its non-salaried employees — Tennington said approximately 100 men — that they would likely be re-hired after Christmas if the company could find a buyer for large coal reserves that it is trying to sell.
Darrell Tennington had worked for Blackjewel before he was hired on at Kopper Glo.
“We thought with Kopper Glo buying that, they would have had their ducks in a row and would have had a contract lined up to buy the coal,” Tennington said. “If they don’t (find a buyer), then what?”
The layoff comes on National Miners Day, which Congress declared in 2009 to recognize coal miners on the anniversary of the Monongah mining disaster, an explosion that killed more than 350 works in northern West Virginia.
Kopper Glo did not respond to requests for comment.
A letter to company employees, however, said miners would be laid off from Dec. 9 to Dec. 26, though salaried employees would not. The letter said miners’ benefits would remain in effect and that they would be paid eight hours for the Christmas holiday.
The notice said the shutdown was necessary because of “higher than expected coal inventories” and the timing of shipping, an indication the company had more coal on hand than it could move.
The shutdown is projected to put the company on a footing “to operate consistently in the year 2020,” according to the letter.
Prestonsburg attorney Ned Pillersdorf, who has represented former Blackjewel miners, provided a copy of the letter.
In August, a bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of West Virginia approved the sale of Blackjewel’s Black Mountain/Lone Mountain division to Kopper Glo. The division included mines in Letcher and Harlan counties.
Kopper Glo is a Tennessee-based mining company that has operated in Central Appalachia for about 60 years. An employee told Pillersdorf the company is operating mines affected by the layoffs under the name INMET Mining LLC.
According to its website, Kopper Glo has continuously operated mines, a processing facility and a rail load out facility in Clairfield, a town about 75 miles north of Knoxville.
Following its purchase from Blackjewel, Kopper Glo rehired some of the miners who had been laid off by Blackjewel, including Tennington.
“I guess we all just had high hopes of Kopper Glo being more stable and not doing this, but it throws us right back into a whirlwind of, ‘Are they just saying this, are they gonna call them back?’” Coleen Tennington said.
Tennington said she is skeptical of the company re-hiring the miners after their experience with Blackjewel, which laid off hundreds with little notice and left them with bad checks after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections this summer.
Pillersdorf, who has represented miners during the bankruptcy, said between 40 and 50 percent of former Blackjewel employees, about 400 to 500 workers, had found employment at other mines, including Kopper Glo.
Many former Blackjewel miners said they were left in a financial bind when the company issued them cold checks, leaving many with bank accounts overdrawn by $2,000 or more. Tennington said she and her husband were on vacation, in Florida, when they got the news that he had been laid off by Blackjewel.
“It’s just aggravating,” she said. “This puts more stress on us, with the mines doing this at Christmas time.”
Joey Hall, 43, of Leslie County, who worked at Blackjewel and was hired back by Kopper Glo, said he had not heard of any layoffs on Friday morning when he was getting ready for work, but said it wouldn’t surprise him.
Hall said he and others had been working 60 hours a week at one point, but after mining a good bit of coal, the company cut them to 40 hours.
Hall took the potential of a layoff in stride. He’s been a miner long enough to be familiar with the ups and downs of the industry.
“If we do, we do,” Hall said of having a job. “If we don’t, we’ll just have to find something else.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 1:57 PM.
