Grimes endorsed by United Mine Workers of America

By Al Cross

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

FANCY FARM, Ky. – The United Mine Workers of America union is endorsing Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race, in a move aimed at blunting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s relentless effort to associate her with the anti-coal policies of the Obama administration.

The union, which abandoned its Democratic traditions by not endorsing President Obama for re-election in 2012, had planned to consider an endorsement in the race at meetings next month. The plan changed in an effort to have more impact on the race.

“Timing is everything in politics,” said Steve Earle, the union’s Midwest vice president and Kentucky political director, said before the political speaking at the Fancy Farm Picnic. “Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.”

Grimes announced the endorsement in her speech at the picnic, only her second joint appearance with McConnell since entering the race over a year ago.

Earle said, “There’s a lot of people supporting coal, but not a lot of people supporting coal miners, and Alison’s going to be a strong voice for coal miners in Washington, D.C., and for working families all across Kentucky.”

Earle said the union is trying to arrange for its president, Cecil Roberts, to appear with Grimes and former President Bill Clinton at a rally Wednesday in Hazard, Ky., a key town in the Central Appalachian coalfield hit hard by market forces and also by the Obama administration’s moves to control water pollution from surface mines and air pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Roberts said in a UMWA press release after the speaking, “Ms. Grimes is not only a strong supporter of coal and the coal industry. She is the only candidate in this race who is also a supporter of coal miners. She cares about their health and safety on the job.  She cares about what happens to them once they retire after a career of dangerous, backbreaking work. She cares about what happens to their families, and what can be done to make their communities stronger.”

McConnell and Grimes have embraced the coal industry with similar fervor in public settings. McConnell has said he is not for new laws on coal-mine health and safety because a reform law was passed eight years ago and more time is needed to see if stronger laws are needed.

UMWA Secretary-Treasurer Dan Kane noted in the press release that incumbent McConnell “passed up a chance to support retired miners and their widows earlier this week in Washington, when he voted against a measure that would have provided funding to help secure the pensions and health care of more than 12,000 Kentucky retirees.”

The UMWA no longer represents any working miners in Eastern Kentucky, but has some non-miner members there, and it represents workers at one mine and processing facilities in Western Kentucky, where the industry is healthier.

               

Grimes tries to turn coal conversation to mine safety

By Al Cross
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

In her bid to unseat Sen. Mitch McConnell, Alison Lundergan Grimes has been trying to change the conversation from coal, where President Obama took it last month when he proposed limits on carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. But to keep the votes of Democrats in the state's two coalfields, Grimes has to confront the issue, and this week she tried a new strategy: coal-mine safety.

Grimes laid a wreath at a memorial to the 38 miners
killed in the 1970 Hurricane Creek Mine disaster.
(Lexington Herald-Leader photo by John Flavell)

At the site of a Leslie County disaster that killed 38 miners almost 45 years ago, Grimes told Morgan Lentes of WYMT-TV in Hazard that miners "need to have somebody in Washington D.C. that has their back instead of the big coal corporations," which support McConnell's campaigns. The senator's spokespeople defended his mine-safety record.

In a news release, Grimes accused McConnell of doing "next to nothing to enhance miners’ safety and health," and said she would work as senator to see that the Mine Safety and Health Administration "ensures that mines are as safe as modern technology will allow, deploys a sufficient number of mine inspectors, encourages supervisorial support for inspectors who enforce safety laws, and delivers effective corrective action for multiple, serious or repeated violations. In addition, MSHA and its parent Department of Labor must act aggressively to protect whistle-blowing employees who report safety problems and to back up inspectors who are subjected to intimidation by mine operators."

"Grimes said she supports two bills proposed by West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller," Sam Youngman and Matt Young of the Lexington Herald-Leader report. "One would strengthen whistleblower protections for miners and increase criminal penalties for safety violations. Another would make it easier for coal miners to get black lung benefits and create grants for research into black lung."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/07/03/3321946/grimes-focuses-on-miner-safety.html?sp=/99/322/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

Grimes's release also said coal dust in mines must be "within recognized safe limits," and "monitored frequently and accurately.  Violations must lead to effective corrective measures." In April, the Labor Department moved to reduce the dust limit by 25 percent; the coal industry has asked a federal appeals court to review the change.

The release Grimes also said McConnell "turned a blind eye" when the George W. Bush administration "cut more than 100 inspectors from MSHA, which reduced inspections." McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, was labor secretary at the time. The release didn't mention that point, but cited a 2007 Washington Monthly article that did.

McConnell's campaign replied that he supported the last major mine-safety law, which followed disasters in Kentucky and West Virginia in 2006, and his official spokesman, Robert Steurer, told Youngman that the law hasn't been in effect long enough to consider additional legislation.

McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore told WYMT that the senator "fights every day to protect Kentucky's miners from Grimes' liberal allies who need her vote to completely destroy the coal industry."

Grimes linked the coal issues with another major issue in the race, Obamacare. "Grimes also said McConnell's repeated calls for repeal of the federal health-care law [which] made it easier for widowers of miners with black lung to receive benefits," Youngman writes. "McConnell 'has called for a full repeal of these pro-coal miner protections,' said Grimes, in her most specific embrace of the controversial law, which she has said should be fixed instead of repealed."

The United Mine Workers of America is highly concerned about mine safety but is one of the few labor unions that declined to endorse Obama for re-election in 2012, because of his anti-coal policies. The union's Kentucky political committee of is scheduled to meet in Lexington Sept. 18-19 to hear from the Senate candidates and consider an endorsement. The union represents miners at only one Kentucky mine, in the western coalfield, and at some Kentucky processing facilities, but has many retired members in the state.

June 16 roundup: Local unions for guards at 2 federal prisons endorse McConnell; Grimes seeks coal votes

As summer heat arrives, campaign heat increases:

• McConnell announced that he has been endorsed by corrections officers at federal prisons in Clay and McCreary counties, both heavily Republican areas. Officers of both American Federation of Government Employees locals said McConnell had always been responsive to their safety and security concerns. McConnell has also been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

• Alison Lundergan Grimes, dressed in overalls, visited an underground coal mine and had a roundtable discussion in Floyd County Friday. WYMT-TV reports she said, "I don't agree with what the president has done, his energy philosophy. It's a stark contrast to mine. But I also don't agree with the 30 years of failed leadership; Mitch McConnell has had now three decades to address the issues facing Kentucky, and he has not saved one coal job." Grimes has blamed Sen. McConnell for the decline in Kentucky coal jobs while he has been in office; he blames President Obama for the decline in the last two years. For a release from the Grimes campaign, click here.
• EMILY's List, which supports female candidates, is running a TV commercial in North Carolina to re-elect Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and says it will spend $3 million on a statewide voter mobilization effort, raising the question of whether the group might also make an effort for Grimes. The group's name stands for "Early Money Is Like Yeast" and it is known for its early involvement in races.