Miners Allege Two Firms Set Up Company To Avoid Paying for Retirees’ Benefit Plans

The United Mine Workers of America and eight retired and active union members filed a potential class action Oct. 23 asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to declare that Peabody Energy Corp. and Arch Coal Inc. must maintain funding for the plaintiffs’ benefit plans despite their transfer of this responsibility to Patriot Coal Co., which is undergoing a bankruptcy reorganization (Lowe v. Peabody Holding Co. LLC).

UMWA in July asked a federal court in New York to transfer Patriot Coal’s bankruptcy case to southern West Virginia, contending that Peabody Energy set up ...