Workers Die Awaiting U.S. Justice as Companies Make Limbo
This article is for subscribers only.
When a federal labor board ruled in September that a West Virginia coal mine had illegally refused to hire union workers, 61-year-old Dave Preast thought his nine-year ordeal was finally coming to an end.
The National Labor Relations Board said the Massey Energy Co. had to offer jobs to Preast and 84 co-workers, pay them back wages from 2004, and recognize the United Mine Workers of America at the Mammoth Coal Company. Preast, whose son has a heart condition that has required several surgeries, believed he was finally close to getting the lifetime medical benefits he would have earned working at the mine in Cannelton, West Virginia.