Today thousands of coal miner union workers and their families held a protest against Patriot Coal in front of the federal Court House in St Louis.
Patriot Coal is in a court case in the Bankruptcy Court to modify their contracts with the unions that was filed last summer as a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Patriot Coal was spun off of Peabody Energy, but many in the unions think that it was spun off to fail:
Patriot was spun off from Peabody Energy Corp. in 2007. Patriot hit hard times in recent years, with the company citing exceptionally soft coal markets, rising costs and “unsustainable legacy liabilities” tied to the spinoff.
The union says Patriot was set up to fail in a deliberate plan to end benefit obligations to retirees. Patriot and Peabody deny that claim.
Peabody Energy released a statement ahead of the arguments:
“The union continues to grandstand when it knows that this matter will be decided in the courts. — KSDK
The St Louis Police have said that 16 people were arrested in the protest. Among those that were arrested was Van Jones, who was the Special Advisor for Green Jobs in the Obama White House
.@vanjones68 arrested outside of federal courthouse protesting #corporategreed with #umwa photo- twitter.com/cathysherwin/s…
— Cathy Sherwin (@cathysherwin) April 29, 2013
Update: Gateway Pundit says that he has been released via his Twitter Feed
Update: KSDK has a Photo Gallery of the protest
Update: Still no mention of Van Jones in any of the local news stations that I can see
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Funny how these types never talk about union greed that kills otherwise-profitable companies. Hostess, anyone?
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thousands? I count 10 people in the picture, including two media cameramen, and three policemen. So, there are four protesters pictured, and Mr. Jones. Thousands were AWOL, unless you have a better picture.
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