BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – On Monday November 2, Walter Energy laid off about half of its remaining workers, totaling 265 employees, at its No. 7 mine in Brookwood.
This is the latest of several rounds of layoffs Walter Energy has had to make this year, already laying off 194 workers at its No. 7 mine were laid off over the summer, in addition to 129 layoffs at the Brookwood No. 4 mine in October.
“Reduced production will be maintained as the mine temporarily addresses geological conditions and continued depressed market conditions,” Stanhouse explained. “We will resume production as conditions permit.”
Walter Energy has seen its revenues plummet during the last year as coal prices have dropped, Environmental Protection Agency regulations made burning coal more expensive, and the steel industry has wavered. In July, Walter Energy filed for bankruptcy.
However, current reductions are claimed to be only temporary by Walter Energy spokesman William Stanhouse.
“It’s a temporary reduction,” Stanhouse said. “I need to stress that.”
However, Walter Energy isn’t the only company that has made serious cuts to Alabama employees. Cliffs Natural Resources also announced in October that it was eliminating 220 jobs from its Oak Grove Mine located in Jefferson County.
Both Cliffs and Walter Energy mine metallurgical coal, which is coal used to make steel. In a Yellowhammer op-ed posted last year, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R) cited a study by the Economic Policy Institute, that found “surging imports of unfairly traded steel are threatening U.S. steel production, which supports more than a half million U.S. jobs across every state of the nation. The import surge has depressed domestic steel production and revenues, leading to sharp declines in net income in the U.S. steel industry over the past two years (2012–2013), layoffs for thousands of workers, and reduced wages for many more.”
With the Obama administration’s assault on the coal industry continuing, coal miners have rallied together in an attempt to save their jobs and their industry. Alabama coal miner Walter Parker gave a moving testimony at EPA hearings in 2014, Walter Energy employees rallied to receive their benefits, and even Governor Bentley took his concerns directly to Obama, expressing his “urgent and vexing” issues with the EPA’s mounting regulations.
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