Union miners at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, Alabama, have now been on strike for four long months, facing economic hardship, social stigma, and even physical assault on the picket line. But the miners have not been alone—it takes a village to win a strike. While the powerful executives and managers of the Wall Street hedge funds that power Warrior
Met continue to hope that the strike will fizzle out, an even more powerful network of spouses, families, retirees, and community members with the UMWA Auxiliary have been doing everything they can to hold the line. In the latest installment of “Battleground Brookwood,” labor journalist and TRNN contributor Kim Kelly travels to West Blocton, a small town near the Warrior Met mines, to talk with five women from the UMWA Auxiliary about the joys and struggles of being married to a coal miner, and about their tireless efforts to organize strike support and carry on the fighting spirit of coal mining families before them.
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
Deep appreciation for this piece. These women are carrying an entire community on their backs and I appreciate Kim & the folks at The Real News Network recognizing the role women play in the workforce. They're not down in the mines, but they're working all the same, and Big Coal needs to be duly compensating their husbands to support these families! They sacrifice so much, like 6 days no contact sounds absolutely brutal, then the risks of the job itself. Pay your workers! Let their families live in dignity!
Cecil Roberts is a joke
Stand proud, Union Members. Force management back to the table. Warrior Met is in violation by not bargaining in good faith.
Thanks for the coverage. My brother works in Birmingham and had no idea this was happening. No mention on evren local news.
They're like military wives.
these bunch of thugs who own this coal mine should have to live by the same standard they put on the employees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I honestly wish I could get all of that overtime pay. Wouldn't want to do that job though, but that's why I didn't seek employment in that industry.
OKLAHOMA SEES U AND I WOULD LOV SOM PICKET SIGNS FOR MY YARD IF I CAN PURCHASE THEM !GOD BLESS OUR COAL MINERS LETS NOT FORGET BEHIND EVERY GOOD MAN IS AN AMAZING WOMAN ….
Solidarity and respect!
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Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie would be proud. Solidarity comrades.
Jim Morrison died 50 years ago on the 3th of July, the day J.u.l.i.a.n, the journalist, was born. Happy birthday to you.
From one union worker to another. You folks stand strong.
You work to live not live to work
LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLES OF THE WORKING CLASS!
Have any coal mining presidents ever worked the mines? Have they ever lived on the wages and benefits of a miner? Coal mine company managment is made up of criminals.
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There’s a name for what you’re doing and your channel actually bans that keyword, because you don’t really care about these folks. You didn’t during the previous administration, the one before that, nor do you right now. You wouldn’t hesitate for a second to accuse them of being privileged just for standing up against their local GVT or the Feds.
You act like you support these so called “coal miner wives†while supporting a government that wanna ban coal mining in general, the Biden administration; that is after they promised they wouldn’t ban it before the election while campaigning.
Politicians, CEOs, bankers love to sell Family Values(tm) as an image, but do everything they can to undermine actual families.