The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) wants US senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) to reconsider his opposition to the Build Back Better bill that has stalled in the Senate.
"We are disappointed that the bill will not pass," UMWA International president Cecil E Roberts said on 20 December.
UMWA's statement came a day after Manchin indicated he would not vote for the $1.85 trillion social spending package that has been one of President Joe Biden's top legislative priorities. Manchin cited its reliance on budget "gimmicks" and voiced concerns it would exacerbate inflation. He also criticized some individual energy-related components of the bill, saying that the legislation would compromise the reliability of the US electric grid and increase dependence on foreign supply chains.
But UMWA's Roberts said that some provisions of the spending bill would benefit coal mining communities. He cited the tax incentives in the bill to encourage clean energy companies to build facilities in coalfields as one of the supportive measures.
Those incentives could create opportunities to "employ thousands of miners who lost their jobs," Roberts said. "We support that and are ready to help supply those plants with a trained, professional workforce. But now the potential for those jobs is significantly threatened."
The bill also includes an extension of the current fee paid by coal producers to fund black lung disability payouts to coal miners, which are set to expire on 31 December and revert to levels originally set in 1978. That provision is similar to a measure Manchin and four other Democratic senators introduced in September.
Another benefit in the Build Back Better bill cited by the UMWA is a provision to penalize companies that deny their workers' rights to form a union on the job, a measure taken from the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021 bill that Manchin co-sponsored.
