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BUSINESS
Court upholds rehiring of union miners in W.Va.
RICHMOND, Va. -- The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a decision requiring a Massey Energy subsidiary to hire 85 West Virginia union miners who lost their jobs in 2004 when their mine was purchased out of bankruptcy.
The ruling affirmed U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin's decision in 2008 requiring Mammoth Coal to offer jobs to the miners. The United Mine Workers-affiliated miners worked at a unionized Kanawha County mine that was purchased by Massey, which is largely nonunion.
Goodwin issued his ruling after a 2007 National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge said Mammoth's decision not to hire the miners violated the National Labor Relations Act.
After Massey appealed the order to the NLRB's board, the agency asked Goodwin to require Mammoth to hire the miners, recognize and bargain with the union and rescind any unilaterally imposed employment conditions.
Goodwin, who sits in Charleston, W.Va., agreed that the miners should be offered jobs, but refused to impose any other sanctions.
Both the NLRB and Massey appealed his ruling to the appeals court in Richmond.
Although Massey disagrees with the appeals court, the company offered the 85 miners jobs, and only nine accepted, spokesman Jeff Gillenwater said Thursday.
"Today, seven of these miners remain with the company," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The appeals court's decision was written by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, who noted the NLRB has yet to decide on Massey's appeal of the 2007 administration law judge order. If it's approved, "the union will be able to reassert its role as representative of those employees," she wrote.
The NLRB did not have an immediate comment on Wednesday's ruling.
United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said the union was pleased and looked forward to the day when it could represent all miners working at the mine.
