Striking Alabama coal miners say they are targets for picket line violence AL.com 1 hr ago William Thornton, al.com
Miners striking against Warrior Met Coal say at least three instances of violence have happened along its picket lines in recent days.
In a video shared on YouTube, a red truck can be seen hitting one picketer, while another view, which appears to be a security camera, shows a black truck driving through a line with one striking miner barely getting out of its path.
Larry P. Spencer, United Mine Workers of America International vice president for District 20, said the incidents have just occurred in the last few days.
United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts and ten other UMWA officials were arrested Tuesday during a civil disobedience protest outside of Warrior Met Coal’s No. 7 mine in Brookwood, Alabama.
Warrior Met Coal miners strike in Alabama nears two months in historic region of class struggle
The seven-week strike by 1,100 miners at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, Alabama is being conducted in an area that is rich in the history of the class struggle and miners’ resistance to the violence of the coal bosses and the government. The miners, who walked out on April 1 determined to restore previous pay cuts and fight abusive and unsafe working conditions, have displayed enormous resilience and courage.
This is in sharp contrast to the actions of the United Mine Workers and the AFL-CIO, which have isolated the striking miners and forced them to fight alone against Warrior Met and the Wall Street investors who run it. Opposed to a real mobilization of the working class, including mass picketing to halt Warrior Met’s strikebreaking operations, the UMWA organized a civil disobedience style protest in front of the company’s main offices on Alabama Route 126 on Wednesday morning.