Mineworkers Are Not Backing Down This Election Season

Walking through the doors of the UMWA event, I’m surprised to be shaking hands with some Democrats, a few Republicans and a whole lot of folks who are neither. These are union people: union first, politics second. And in this audience of around 200 in the reddest corner of Virginia’s reddest district, I had never felt so far away from Trump’s America since he was elected for a second term. 

On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump promised to bring back coal miners’ jobs and to cut regulations that he saw as “killing” the industry. Yet, by the end of his first term, the number of coal miners had dropped to 44,100—less than half of the 92,000 workers that existed in 2011. These job losses were felt in predominantly rural areas across Appalachia from Virginia to Pennsylvania, Ohio to Tennessee, as well as in the Navajo and Hopi nations (hundreds of jobs were lost after the closure of the Navajo Generating Station in 2019).

In 2024, Trump again made coal country a central part of his campaign. Since taking office, the Trump administration has released a flurry of executive orders calling on expanding domestic fossil fuel production while also eliminating environmental regulations. On April 8, he gathered a group of coal miners at the White House to sign four more executive orders aimed at “turbocharging” the coal industry, leading to a recent $625 million commitment to expand coal-fired power and opening 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal mining.

Time and again, whether the proposed enterprise is mining, Big Ag, prison construction, manufacturing or opening federal lands to development, rural communities have been courted with impressive promises, glowing opportunities and good paying jobs. Will today’s rural work force fall for these same promises? Will America’s weakened unions be included in Trump’s coal expansion?

I live in southwest Virginia in a little town called Galax. It straddles a county line between Grayson and Carroll counties. I was a teenager in Winneshiek County, Iowa, during the 1980s Farm Crisis. At the height of the farm crisis, Iowa saw 250 farm auctions per day—the nation lost 300,000 family farms. For every four farms shuttered, one business on Main Street in small town America also closed. Eleanor Krause, an economist at the University of Kentucky, has shown how communities that have depended on coal as both a source of labor income and public revenue have experienced similar losses over the past five decades, from the decline in jobs to reduced incomes and the migration of local people out of the community.

For me, it’s always difficult to hear city folks give lip service to renewable energy while dismissing its implications for folks whose labor helps power the big city lights. It was frustrating to hear the Democratic nominee for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton remark at a CNN town hall that renewable energy would bring economic opportunity, “[W]e’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” What Clinton failed to understand was that rural America exists in an employer monopsony—conditions where there are extremely few employers who hire in the labor market. And here in the coalfields of southwest Virginia, the monopsony is coal.

At the UMWA event in Castlewood, discussion often zeroes in on good paying jobs and good employers. Even though this is a priority for constituents, none of the area’s current Republican representatives attend. Neither Morgan Griffith, who has represented Virginia’s 9th Congressional District in the U.S. House for 14 years, or Israel O’Quinn, a 12-year representative in the Virginia House of Delegates, who is running for re-election on November 4, made the trip. Both are running for reelection in Virginia’s November elections. Republicans seldom align with unions.

Oddly enough, this year the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, isn’t supporting unions either. None of the unions. In fact, she announced earlier this year that she won’t sign any legislation that opposes so-called “right to work” laws.  As a result, Spanberger is gambling in favor of corporations over Virginia’s unions—organizations that could bring hundreds of thousands of voters.

Patterned after the early American Labor Federation, the UMWA—founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1890—is often recognized as the foundation for contemporary labor organizing in the United States.

Today’s UMWA also represents more than coal miners. With chapters across North America, they represent workers in public sectors, health care, manufacturing and the Navajo Nation. 

The chapter here in Castlewood, UMWA District 17,  has a long history of fighting labor battles against coal operators and union busters like the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency and The Pinkertons.

In the early 20th century, members from District 17 joined forces in famous battles like Blair Mountain and Matewan. On April 5, 1989, 2,000 District 17 miners walked off the job to support their members in Pittston, Pennsylvania, as part of the 10-month long Pittston strike. One of the pastors at my church in Galax was a young man from Lebanon, Virginia, during the 1989 strike. He recalls the harassment from law enforcement and coal operators pulling over every car to arrest or intimidate striking workers. When coal operators shipped in replacement workers, strikers in southwest Virginia found non-violent ways to slow down coal distribution. Hundreds were arrested as they sat in human barricades to delay coal shipments from area refineries.

Listening to the fiery speeches offered today at the UMWA cookout, there’s no mistaking that these speakers are the inheritors of union defenders carrying forward their legacy of solidarity. You can hear that this crowd isn’t done fighting, either. In fact, they’re just warming up.

One 85-year-old retiree tells me in no uncertain terms: “Democrats used to be the party of the working man. But not anymore! The Republicans and the Democrats—both don’t do a thing for working people.”

Most of the men and women here today are retirees from the coal industry with long memories of the area’s rich history. Like the voices of my neighbors during the 1980s Farm Crisis, they describe school consolidations, family leaving in search of reliable employment, businesses closing and clinics and hospitals reducing staff and services. 

I also hear about resourcefulness and endurance. New directions in economic sustainability are cropping up. One of the daughters describes community canning facilities where families can bring their freshly packed jars of garden vegetables and meats to can their homegrown good collectively. Across the state line, in West Virginia, the UMWA coordinated with a lithium battery manufacturer to add manufacturing jobs. For every abandoned Pizza Hut sinking beneath kudzu, an entrepreneur has hung out their shingle boasting a service, cafe, or handmade items for sale. Marquees of little country churches proclaim from the Book of Joshua, “Be strong and Courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

With Republican incumbents and the state’s Democratic candidate for governor absent, local down-ticket Democrats are making inroads with the audience and giving speeches.  

Cindy Green, running for the Virginia House in District 44 in the November 4 election, prioritizes the needs of union families and their communities. Her background in pairing development with financial tools has prepared her to lead coal country toward new industrial and manufacturing partners. She says quite simply: “I support unions and will vote to repeal ‘right to work’ [laws],” She also focuses on the region’s labor force and the needs of local communities in the face of transitioning from coal to renewable energy. “You know, the situation out here isn’t really a polarized narrative of coal vs. renewables. Most people know that transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable power sources is the future.”

She puts her stance this way:

I am for renewables but I’m not anti-coal because people working in coal have sacrificed their lives and their health to keep this country powered for generations. So we need to protect these communities. These coal workers are dying because of their jobs. They deal with silica and black lung [a deadly lung disease caused by inhalation of coal dust]. The reason they’re working in coal is because this is the only employer in town.

Green makes the case that as a representative in Virginia’s House of Delegates, she wouldn’t be “led around by corporate or philanthropic interests” and that instead “I need the constituents in my district to be with me at decision-making tables. I need the men and women of the UMWA with me to steer policy that serves them.”

Josh Outsey is running in Virginia House District 45. His work preserving Appalachia’s rich history has spurred him to run a campaign for the region’s environmental future. He has proposals to help communities in Virginia’s coal country revitalize their economic base and invest in environmental protections for residents. 

When I ask him about his position on unions and the UMWA, Outsey says:

Miners deserve representation that respects their hard work and sacrifices. I will advocate for universal access to affordable care, sustain and improve pensions and disability benefits, and ensure every mine site is a safe, well-regulated place to work. Together, we will protect our most vulnerable members and build a safer, more secure Commonwealth.

Outsey also turns his focus to communities who depend on coal for their employment. Referring to the $3 billion currently held up by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency slated for portions of Appalachia hit hard by climate change, Outsey says, “That’s money that could make a real difference for communities like ours. It won’t fix everything overnight, but it could help us make big strides. We could see grants that support small businesses, improve local infrastructure and create real opportunities that lift the entire community.” 

For Outsey, the transition to renewable energy and stronger rural economies has to be led by workers and local communities, not imposed from the outside. “Folks here in southwest Virginia deserve to have a say in what our future looks like,” he says, “and we deserve the resources to make that vision a reality.”

Adam Murphy, a Democrat, is challenging Republican Morgan Griffith for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 in Virginia’s 9th Congressional District. Murphy aims to establish Medicare for All, protecting Americans’ constitutional rights and renewing rural clinics and hospitals. When I ask him about his plans for Virginia’s unions and the UMWA, Murphy responds by saying he would introduce new legislation in the House to protect collective bargaining rights and to support miners and their families. He says:

The UMWA’s fight for fair wages, safe working conditions and economic security for miners and their families is a fight I wholeheartedly support. While I can respect differing viewpoints on labor policy, I believe Democrats need to rapidly realign around updating ‘right to work’ laws. We need to address labor rights across the board and pass a new and improved National Labor Relations Act.

For Murphy, support for workers and Virginia’s unions is also key to the region’s economic transition away from coal jobs, which he says, “is about ensuring we phase in the future without disenfranchising our communities any more than they already are.”

Murphy points to an example in Wise County, where voters in the election ending on November 4 are facing a referendum on whether the county should participate in a proposed local electric authority. The authority would only work with large industries that want to build their own power in the area, a proposal Murphy says is a “terrible” deal for Wise County. County administrators, he says, “are trying to ram through this electric authority, but the original proposal was for a public utility owned by Wise [County] …  If they had proceeded with a public utility, they would be able to regulate their own power sources, the rates and the actual power delivery for all customers, residential and commercial. They would have full control.” A “just transition from coal,” Murphy says, “cannot mean giving rigged deals to the power company that still screw over the local community.”

After hearing from the Democrats, UMWA leadership takes the stage to address the crowd. Speaker after speaker passionately stirs the audience to swells of applause.

Virginia’s AFL-CIO President Doris Crouse-Mays delivers a fiery three minutes. “We have 44 days until the next election,” she says. “I don’t need to remind everyone in here that elections have consequences and we’re facing that right now.” Labor unions, she says, are the last wall of defense for workers. “That’s why they want to tear labor apart. … Look what they’ve done to the federal unions! Well, after that … we’re next. So, if you want to stop it, you’ve got to fight!”

Next is UMWA District 17 Vice President Brian Lacy, who begins by telling his story of rising through union ranks, starting with the UMWA Construction Local in 1997. He points to the fact that America needs to reinvest in the middle class, starting with support for unions:

We have to get back the right to organize. There’s not been any labor reform, labor law in this country in over 70 some years, and right now the unions’ favorability rating in this country is the highest it’s ever been. But our membership continues to decline.

The reason for this, he says, is because U.S. labor laws are written against working people and in favor of corporations and the rich. “So if you [the politicians] want the UMWA’s endorsement,” he says, “if you want us to have our members go out and vote for you, then you better be on the right side of labor and you better go on and fight for newer, better labor laws in this country!”

James Gibbs, past UMWA vice president, passionately tells the audience to vote differently:

Let me tell you about your 9th District Congressman [Republican Morgan Griffith]. He was the only man in the coalfields in Congress that voted against our health care and our pension. I don’t know about you all, I’ve just been diagnosed with black lung and I want to keep my health care! But you all have to stop voting for these people just because of what party you belong to.

Days later, on October 14, Gibbs’s words were echoed in the dozens of miners and their families who gathered outside the Labor Department building in Washington D.C. to protest the Trump administration’s failure to protect them from black lung disease as the result of overexposure to silica dust—a carcinogen generated by grinding or crushing material like concrete or coal.

After months of waiting for the government to enforce a Mine Safety and Health Administration rule to set limits on silica dust, mining industry groups recently sued to block the rule, which was originally scheduled to take effect in April. The Trump administration has paused enforcement while the lawsuit works its way through the courts.

Gibbs hands the microphone to incoming UMWA President Brian Sanson, who echoes the call to reform the National Labor Relations Act:

We need to remember that political disagreement is not disloyalty, no matter what anybody says. It’s our responsibility to speak up when we believe our country needs change. And we’re not going to accept political slogans over “Actions and a Plan.” Don’t come down here to the coalfields without a plan to eliminate … the National Labor Relations Act and replace it with something that actually helps and defends workers!

The crowd erupts in applause. Sanson continues:

We have got people that were fired four years ago that the National Labor Relations board is still making decisions about. They can’t make a decision because President Trump fired the board! So, what happens to you now if you’re a worker and you don’t have a contract? What happens if it’s something outside of the scope of your contract? You can file an NLRB charge and then four years from now you may get an answer, but you won’t get one until they appoint a full board. Workers have nowhere to turn but a union!  And it is our responsibility to make sure that they have one. Every working man and woman in this country that wants a union should have a union!

For those politicians “that would attack our grandparents’, our grandfathers’, our parents’ health care, their pensions, their social security,” Sanson says, “Be warned! You do so at your own peril. Because the United Mine Workers of America will fight to the last man and woman to make sure that never happens!”

He concludes by highlighting a recent win that secured better pay and preserved existing health care benefits for 2,000 UMWA workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. “We’ve got a new generation of workers coming up that are militant; that want to be in a union, and that want to fight. They showed their solidarity in northern West Virginia and southern Pennsylvania over the last couple of weeks.”

“Sometimes we live in dark times but there’s always light at the end of tunnel—but we have to get us to the end of the tunnel to see that light!”

Standing ovation.

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to Josh West, Mike McGirr, Jason Nottestad and members of the UMWA whose experience, knowledge and technical support went into the writing of the article. 

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Sara June Jo-Sæbo has served on a rural Democratic committee. She is an author and freelance writer living in Southwest Virginia. Jo-Sæbo publishes her history work on her website: Midwest History Project.