| Offices : Beckley • Charleston • Fairmont • Martinsburg • Washington, DC | E-mail Senator Rockefeller |
September 9, 1999
ROCKEFELLER SAYS PROTECTING MINERS' BENEFITS IS A TOP PRIORITY
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said today that he has been working with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) on several fronts to protect health benefits for retired miners and their families. Today, miners gathered in Charleston to get an update on the benefit situation from leaders of the union.
“It is important that Cecil Roberts and the United Mine Workers are going around the country talking to retirees about where things stand with health benefits,” Rockefeller said. “With the benefit fund close to running out of money, this is a critical issue and retired miners and their families need to know exactly what the current situation is and what the future holds. The bottom line is that our country must continue to honor the promise it made to provide health benefits for retired mine workers.”
In 1992, Rockefeller authored the Coal Act, which preserved a health care benefit for retired coal miners and their widows. Due to several court cases and the dramatically rising cost of health care, the benefit fund is quickly running out of money. Rockefeller has been working with the UMWA, coal companies and members of Congress to develop a solution that would keep the fund solvent for years to come.
Rockefeller continued, “In order to honor our promise to miners, we must keep the benefit fund solvent and make certain that it never again faces bankruptcy. I am working on a plan that includes transferring $240 million in interest that has been generated from the mine clean-up fund into the miners’ health benefit fund. This plan, which has received support from the mine workers union, mining companies and many members of Congress, would guarantee once and for all that retired miners will get the health benefits they are owed.”
“Shoring up this fund and protecting benefits for miners will require Congress to act, and the real challenge will be to bring Republicans and Democrats together to quickly get the job done,” Rockefeller said. “I have been working to accomplish this goal for months, and I will not rest until we are successful.”
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