Appalachian Mine Workers For Obama

5:25 pm EST October 2nd, 2008 | News | 4 Comments

coal minerAmerica, eff yeah!

Last Monday more than 440 members of the United Mine Workers of America took the day off, halting production at the Blacksville mine. The union declared it a Memorial Day, largely to protest what union officials said was an anti-Obama ad that the National Rifle Association was filming at the mine.

Phil Smith, the union’s communications director, said that the mine’s owner, Consol Energy, allowed the film crew to go on the property, and that the crew asked several miners: ‘How do you feel about having your Second Amendment rights taken away if Obama becomes president.’

Word spread to several miners who supported Senator Obama, someone called union headquarters in Virginia, and soon Cecil Roberts, the president of the parent union, declared a Memorial Day (which is allowed under the contract) to protest the NRA’s filming (and to show support for Mr. Obama).

‘This was a surprise visit,’ said Eric Greathouse, safety chairman of UMWA Local 1702, in an interview on WBOY, a television station in Clarksburg W.Va. ‘A lot of the miners felt that this was a direct slap in the face of the union because they were trying to coerce our people into saying things against Barack Obama.’

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4 Responses to “Appalachian Mine Workers For Obama”

  1. Leota2 says:
    October 2, 2008 at 5:39 pm

    Fantastic . . . .

  2. Dave in SoCal says:
    October 2, 2008 at 6:05 pm

    I wonder if those proud UMWA members know that Obama and Biden aren’t really down with that whole ‘coal’ thing? At least, not here in America.

    Working the rope line in Maumee, Ohio, the Senator [Biden] was asked by an environmentalist why he and Mr. Obama support “clean coal.” “We’re not supporting clean coal,” Mr. Biden responded. Then, riffing on China’s breakneck construction of new coal plants, he continued, “No coal plants here in America. Build them, if they’re going to build them, over there.”

  3. Sean D. Martin says:
    October 2, 2008 at 6:09 pm

    Thomas F. Hoffman, Consol’s senior vice president for external affairs, said the company meant no harm by letting the N.R.A. crew film at the mine. … He said the union went ahead with its work stoppage even though it had been informed that the interviews would not be used.

    IOW: “We didn’t do anything wrong. And we gave the lunch money back, so what are you complaining about?”

    Typical bully speak.

  4. jr says:
    October 2, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    Wayne Lapierre of the NRA makes a million dollars a year but feels the workers “pain”