Several miners laid off following sale of Buckingham Coal Company Thirty or more miners at the Buckingham Coal Co. mine in Perry County were laid off shortly after the company was sold, according to miners with whom The Messenger spoke. The Athens Messenger previously reported Buckingham Coal Co. was sold Jan. 1 to Colorado-based Westmoreland Mine Co. for $34 million. Two days after the sale, 35 miners were told they were laid off, according to one miner, who asked not to be identified. He said the miners had not been employees of Buckingham, but worked for GMS Mine Repair and Maintenance, which supplied some of the labor for the mine. “I was upset it happened,” he said. “It was kind of a shocker.” According to the miner, several of those laid off had worked at the Perry County underground mine for well over a year, some close to two years. He said that in the past, Buckingham Coal had hired some of the GMS workers at the mine as regular employees. “We worked side by side just like the Buckingham guys,” he said, although he said those who worked at the mine through GMS were paid less than the Buckingham employees. Another miner said that GMS gave the miners the option of collecting unemployment or relocating to West Virginia, Kentucky or Pennsylvania. He said he is considering moving so he can stay with the company. “It’s too good money (to give up), especially around here,” he said. No reason was given for the layoffs, he said, but he assumes it was a result of the sale of Buckingham. He placed the number of layoffs at between 30 and 35. Both miners said most of those laid off are from Perry County, Athens County or Hocking County. They also indicated they had been hopeful of being hired by Buckingham, and had been given applications, only to learn later that the company had been sold and they were being laid off. Westmoreland Mine Co. and GMS officials did not return phone messages left Thursday by The Messenger. The newspaper was able to make contact with one GMS employee, who referred questions to the company’s corporate office in Maryland. In addition to the Perry County mine, which remains in operation, Westmoreland operates coal mines in Canada and in the western United States, including in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Texas and North Dakota, according to its website. The Athens Messenger was unable to determine if Westmoreland uses GMS workers at any of its other mines.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 16:53:51 +0000
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