By April 19, 2021 - 3:56 pm Senator Joe Manchin and United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts together endorsed legislation to strengthen labor unions, pushed for federal investments in carbon capture technology, advocated for using coal to make steel in the United States and called for building up coal-producing communities that have languished in recent years. Cecil Roberts “We’re very much interested in protecting existing coalfield jobs,” Roberts said. “I would say to our friends in government and high places that we’ve just about had all we can take of layoffs and people losing their jobs in the coalfields. It doesn’t have to be that way.”